The Evil That Arrived
by BooksV.Cigarettes
Summary: "I don't really know what made me do it. Maybe I felt selfish because I was safe and others weren't. Maybe I need to pretend people are still good to one another. Maybe I just don't want to be alone". Daryl/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Totally new to Walking Dead, but over the last week I've been catching up on the whole series, and had an idea that I hope will turn into a pretty good story. I didn't have a huge amount of time to write a great big chapter, but I'm hoping that this little prologue will spark people's interest. **

**Prologue**

** X**

After the last agent turned, the choice seemed reasonably clear – stay in the secure compound alone and go mad, or risk going outside the walls to look for other people who had survived.

She had supplies. She was safe. She could defend herself here.

But what if there were people outside who couldn't defend themselves? Before the radios had stopped transmitting, she had heard stories of safe-houses and CDCs being overrun. There was nowhere for anyone to go now.

Except here.

The compound had the best security around. The walls that surrounded it were fifteen feet high and made of thick concrete. It spanned about two and a half acres altogether. She had walked the grid at least ten times looking for weaknesses and had found none. Nothing had gotten in since they had gone into lockdown.

Of course, the lockdown hadn't helped. They had just locked themselves in with the disease. The fifteen agents that had been injured in the initial phase had turned first, and before anyone knew what was happening they had reduced their number by half. On day one, there had been nearly two hundred of them.

Now, a month later, it was just her and a pile of bodies.

And if that wasn't enough to send you over the edge, then nothing would.

And if she left to find others, then what? Little chance of the turned ones getting in, but the same couldn't be said for any survivors that tried to find sanctuary in her absence. What if they broke in by charging the gate? Then the place would be permanently vulnerable and they'd be back to square one. At least if she was here she could get them in safely.

She decided early on into her enforced period of solitary that there was little sense in keeping the bodies in case someone wanted to put them in a coffin with a flag on it, and so she had hoisted a bunch of them over the high walls at intervals all around the perimeter, making sure never to throw too many over in one area in case they created a handy ladder for anything that wanted to get in.

The difficulty lay in figuring out the place. She hadn't been there very long before the lockdown – maybe a week or so. Not enough to time to become familiar with anything. All too often she would think her feet were taking her in one direction when in fact they weren't. It felt like the whole placed was suspended in time. Books and files lay open on desks, cups of coffee sat half-drunk. There wasn't even that much gore spattered about; once it became obvious that a lack of a heartbeat wasn't a valid indication of someone shuffling off their mortal coil, the infected were usually confined to the cells and dispatched once they turned.

Days began to merge. She had cleaned up the medical bay as best she could, scrubbing away at the blood marks on the walls, date-checking and rotating the seemingly endless supplies of dressings and medicines. She had even ensured the medical refrigerator was a safe temperature.

It was around the time that she was remaking all the beds on the ward that she realised what she was doing. She was making the place inhabitable for others.

Others who certainly weren't going to come to her.

It took her a day and half to prepare everything she thought she would need. One of the first broadcasts they had gotten before everything descended into chaos came from another one of the compounds that hadn't been so lucky. The agent who radioed them was alone and barricaded in an interview room. His broadcasts were always accompanied by the sounds of banging and scratching, but the one thing he had said was that when people turned, the only way to truly kill them was by destroying the brain. With this in mind, she raided the secure weapons unit and armed herself with two handguns with silencers and a sniper rifle. Basic training seemed a lifetime ago, but the second her fingers touched cool metal it felt as though a part of her brain long since disengaged flickered into life once more.

She eventually found the garage where all the armoured vehicles were kept. She smiled sardonically to herself as she realised that remembering to drive on the correct side of the road was the least of her worries now. She selected a truck and made sure the gas tank was full, placing three extra tanks in the back, along with enough bottled water and supplies for a fortnight. She would drive as far out as she could for a week in one direction, picking up any survivors she found on the way. Then she would guide them back, stock up, head in the other direction and do the same.

It was a vague plan, with plenty of room for error.

But it was the only one she had.

** X**

**Would love some feedback!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I really ought to be doing some work right now, but I honestly couldn't wait to write more **

**Chapter One**

**X**

_**Then**_

_Anna Spencer sat in silence. The man across the table from her looked to her expectantly. She hadn't said a word since coming in a quarter of an hour ago. She had simply placed a glass of water in front of him and herself, and sat down without speaking. _

_She could see it made him nervous. Good. That meant things were going according to plan. Taking a sip of water, she reclined languidly in her chair. _

"_Did you wanna ask me somethin'?" Anna tried to not grin triumphantly at the man's strained attempt at casual gruffness. She smiled politely._

"_I'm just waiting."_

"_Waitin' for what?"_

_Once again, Anna didn't answer. It was amazing how effective long periods of silence were in obtaining the truth. It was less than four minutes before the man spoke again._

"_I don't know anythin', OK?"_

"_That's not strictly true, is it? I bet you know lots of things."_

"_Well I don't!"_

"_The evidence we've gathered is telling a different story, and your comrade down the hall seemed to think you'd want to tell us about..." Anna paused as though she were trying to remember "...a trip to Germany?"_

"_That rat bastard! I knew the sonofabitch would sell me out!"_

"_Now's your chance to repay him. His side of the story made it sound as though this was all your idea, all your work."_

_The man slammed his fists on the table. Anna could see the swastikas tattooed on each knuckle "Now you listen to me, you dumb bitch. I didn't want nothing to do with it. Far as I knew, we was goin' to meet an arms dealer, get ourselves some guns. But when we got there it was a lab, not an armoury. Joey looked like he knew what he was doin' so I just kept followin' and doin' as I was told. They gave him a briefcase and we left. There were a coupla other guys there too, all like us but from different countries. I figured gun-running was a business that the scientist had on the side. When we left he said somethin' in another language – not German. I don't know what it was. It started off like 'Dull Shay It' or somethin'."_

_Anna frowned, trying to cast her mind over what the phrase might be. And then it hit her._

"_Did he say 'Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori'?"_

"_Yeah! I didn't know what in the hell it meant though."_

"_It's Latin," Anna could feel her stomach turn to ice "'It is sweet and wonderful to die for your country'." Leaning forward across the table, she asked urgently "What happened to the briefcase? Do you know what was in it?"_

**X**

**Now**

Anna decided to act with caution on the first run, aiming only for Virginia, one state over. It was a six hour drive on the main roads, probably one she could make in a day, but she didn't know how the highways would be. Before the radio silence, she had heard stories of hundred of cars just being abandoned on the roads. Probably best to stick to back roads where she could, even though it would use up a lot of fuel. Avoiding the major cities was also an obvious choice.

After leaving the compound in the early dawn, she drove non-stop for four hours. There was nobody for miles. Not even the undead. When she finally stopped, it was to wonder if she were the only person left alive. Did anyone else survive? Or was she really, truly alone now? Tears began to prickle at the back of her eyes and she rubbed at them angrily.

No. It couldn't be. America was a big country. She had read somewhere that in some places, the houses were spaced four miles apart. There had to be others.

It was as she was deliberating this that in the distance, she heard the low hum of an engine in pain. She had stopped the truck on a singular road running through some woodland. A quick check of the map confirmed that this was the only through road for miles – they would have to come this way.

And sure enough, minutes later, a beaten up Caddy limped into view with a woman at the wheel. Anna felt her heart lift as she stuck an arm out of the window to flag it down. The Cadillac slowed and choked to a stop when their front windows were level.

"We haven't got any fuel we can give you," Said the driver tiredly "We're running on fumes as it is." She looked to be about thirty and of Asian descent, with a mane of shiny black hair, coffee coloured skin and deep brown eyes. Her passengers were a middle aged man and a sleeping baby strapped into a car seat in the back.

"I don't need fuel, but I can give you some. My name is Anna."

The Asian woman looked perplexed at Anna's offer of fuel "Why would you do that?"

"Because I thought I might be running into people in your position and so I bought extra. Here," Anna jumped down from the cab and hoisted one of her fuel cans from the back of the truck and made her way to the driver's side window "I'm just glad to find other people who are alive."

Nobody in the Cadillac moved. They all stared at the bottle Anna was proffering as though it were an unexploded bomb.

"Are you alone?" asked the Asian woman. Anna nodded "How about you?"

"We had a group. There was about fourteen of us. Two days ago we were attacked and we've been driving ever since." Tears filled the man's eyes and he bit his lip. The Asian woman reached out to squeeze his hand in comfort. She gave a meaningful glance to Anna "Turns out it's not just the dead you have to watch out for anymore."

Anna felt sick "You were attacked by the living?"

The Asian woman nodded "They turned up on motorcycles in the middle of the night and just started killing people. We don't know if it was because they wanted to steal our stuff or rape the women but it was chaos. We barely got away."

A sudden rustle in the bushes behind Anna caught her attention. She whipped around on her heel and saw a turned man shambling through the trees towards her, one arm missing and an eyeball hanging out of a socket. One hand on her gun, she held the fuel can behind her "Take the can and fill up your car _now_." She muttered, her eyes never leaving the undead man before her. She felt the can being taken from her grasp and with her other hand now free, she took aim and was about to shoot when she saw two others appear in her peripheral line of vision, a little way up the road in the direction from which the Cadillac had come.

The Asian woman had noticed this too and had begun jiggling the fuel can around, trying to get it to empty faster "Shhh," Anna muttered, "The more you panic, the faster they try to get to you. Are you nearly done?"

The woman nodded with a small whimper, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks "Good. Now, put the empty can back on my truck and get in your car. When I drive away you follow me, do you understand?"

Another nod and whimper. Anna glanced around to assess the situation. Right now, there were only three in sight, but that didn't mean there weren't more coming. It would make sense to shoot the ones she could see and make a run for it. A small _click_ behind her told her that the woman was safely back in her car. They were very close now. The one armed man reached out for her as he trudged closer. Anna took aim and blew his head off. The _pop_ of the silencer was still loud enough to start the other two running towards her. She waited until they were close enough for her to hear their snarls and wheezes before dispatching both of them.

"The noise will attract more..." The Asian woman stared worriedly at her as she clambered back into her truck. Anna smiled grimly as she started the engine.

"I suppose we'd better leave before they get here, then."

**X**

**Thank you to Leyshla Gisel for my first review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I am literally ADDICTED to writing this now. Hence, why I just wrote 2000 words of this instead of a lit review I'm supposed to be doing that's due on Friday. Oops.**

**Chapter Two**

**X**

Anna drove at speed back in the direction from which she'd come with the Cadillac in tow for a couple of miles to be absolutely sure that nothing had caught their trail. When she was confidant they could stop, she stuck a hand out of the window and waved them over to the side of the road. Groping around for her cigarettes, she lit one and rolled to a stop. Sliding from the cab she proffered the cigarette to the man and women as she had with the can of fuel. The woman shook her head but the man took one gratefully.

"I guess the end of the world is a good enough reason to start smoking again." He smiled thinly as she threw him the lighter.

"Thank you for the fuel," the woman still sounded perplexed, as though she couldn't understand why Anna had done it "If you hadn't shown up we'd definitely be dead."

"Don't mention it." Anna took and drag and leaned against the truck "What are your names?"

"I'm Neha," she pronounced it _Ne-huh_ "And this is Joe. The baby is Ella."

"Is she yours?" Both Joe and Neha shook their heads "She was sleeping in the car when we were attacked. Her parents were both killed." Neha explained, taking shaky breaths. Despite the warm late afternoon sun, Anna felt herself shiver. Holding her cigarette between her teeth, she reached into the back of the truck and produced two bottles of water that she handed to each of them.

"Are you part of some rescue team or something? You're not American. Did you get parachuted in to save people?" Joe asked, staring at the bottle in his hands. Anna laughed wryly "I wouldn't put it like that. Although that's a much cooler story."

They both looked at her expectantly. Anna took a deep breath "I was on secondment from the UK at a secure base in South Carolina when it hit. We went into lockdown, but some of our people were already infected. A month later, I was the only one left. The base is completely secure. It's got a concrete wall around the whole perimeter, its own medical unit, everything. I decided to leave and search out others to bring back with me. You're the first people I've found."

"Why not just stay there and wait for people to show up?"

"I waited for a while, but no one turned up. It's not somewhere that's designed to be found unless you know where it is." Anna gave a cursory glance around them, checking they were still alone "So I suppose the question is, do you want to come back with me?"

Both Joe and Neha were silent for a moment. Anna lit up once more, making a mental note to find more cigarettes and waiting patiently for their answer. She busied herself with moving items around in the back of the truck when their hushed whispers started. Eventually, Neha stepped forward "How do we know... I mean-"

"- How do you know I'm not a madwoman who's going to lure you into the woods and kill you?" Anna smiled warmly. Neha blushed and Joe became very interested in his shoes.

"We want to trust you, but... it just seems too good to be true. We've been through so much."

"I understand," Anna squinted out over the horizon. The sun was beginning its descent. Whatever happened, it would have to happen soon "I mean, I know what it looks like. Strange woman shows up out of nowhere claiming to be able to lead you to sanctuary. Especially when she had the option of staying safe. I don't really know what made me do it," She heaved a sigh and put her hands on her hips, kicking at the dusty road beneath her feet "Maybe I felt selfish because I was safe and others weren't. Maybe I need to pretend people are still good to one another. Maybe I just don't want to be alone," Anna stared at Joe and Neha "I can't make you come with me, but I promise you that if you do, you'll be safe. And if you want to leave, I won't stop you."

Inside the Cadillac, a tiny pair of lungs began to exercise themselves. Both Neha and Joe jumped at the noise, as though they had forgotten the third leg of their new tripod. Anna reached for a fresh bottle of water which she threw to Joe "She's probably over-heated."

"... And starving, and dirty." Joe finished for her sadly before nodding curtly to Neha and moving toward the car. Neha turned back to Anna "Sounds like we've reached a decision. How long is the drive?"

"Well I'm sure you've noticed that it's pointless driving on the main highways which will add on a couple of hours at least, and I don't like the idea of sleeping out in the open unless absolutely necessary. All in all we're looking at eight, maybe nine hours of solid driving unless we come across other survivors or a town where we can gather supplies. I've got a feeling that the compound wasn't built with babies in mind. Think you guys can cope?"

Neha blanched slightly at Anna's estimations, but nodded with determination. She started back toward the Cadillac but then stopped and turned "Thank you."

Anna nodded in response before clambering back into the truck and gunning the engine. Together, the vehicles set off into the dying light.

It was going to be a long night.

**X**

Just after dawn they arrived at a small town perhaps forty miles from the compound, by Anna's reckoning. She felt grimy and exhausted having driven through the night. There had been a couple of run-ins with the undead over the course of the night. Luckily each time there had only been one or two to deal with. The first time had been just as the twilight was giving way so visibility was poor but not awful. Anna had seen it from around fifty yards away and panic had struck her. It would have to be killed – soon they would be driving slower to cope with the dark and they couldn't have it following them and potentially attracting the attention of others.

She needn't have worried. A glance in the rear-view mirror informed her that Neha and Joe had already seen the obstacle in front and were preparing to deal with it. Joe, holding a hunting knife, was leaning out of the Caddy's window and Neha was lining the car up as close as she dared with the side of the road that the dead woman was shuffling along on. Anna forgot to watch the road ahead and just stared, her mouth agape, into the rear view mirror as Joe sliced the knife through the dead woman's head as they roared past. Anna cheered in triumph and relief, sticking her hand out of the window to give the Cadillac the thumbs up sign. Neha flashed the lights in return and in that moment, Anna knew that they would have survived even if she hadn't found them.

The town they found looked as though it had been ripped to shreds, probably like every other town did nowadays. Burnt out cars in the street, shop windows smashed in, the odd dead body. The odd _undead_ body.

There were two of them in the middle of the main high street as the truck and the Cadillac drove up. Anna slowed when they were around twenty yards from them and gestured out of the window for Joe who was now driving the Caddy to pull up alongside her. When their windows were parallel Anna held out a hand "You have a knife I could use? All I've got is guns."

Joe nodded and wordlessly handed over what looked like a kitchen knife that he had been keeping in the glove box. By now they had caught the zombies' attention and they left the carcass that they had been picking over and began to shuffle toward a fresher meal, their arms reaching out, the rotting flesh on them grey and mottled. One of them had had their face eaten nearly clean away, and as its jaws worked hungrily, spatters of blood and gore dribbled down what was left of its chin.

Anna began to inch the truck forward, sending a nod to Joe to do the same. Neha crouched in the passenger seat, the hunting knife raised and ready. As they moved closer to one another, Anna could hear the laboured wheezing and gargling and wrinkled her nose in disgust. When they were close enough to strike, Anna leaned out of the truck window and brought the knife crashing down into its skull from above, deriving a grim feeling of satisfaction from the squelching noise it made. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Neha do the same.

Killing the truck's engine and jumping down from the cab, Anna looked up and down the road for signs of others, but saw nothing. Reaching down she wiped the blade of the knife on the Levis of the undead man she had just killed "Mind if I borrow this?" Joe shook his head.

"Thanks. Now, which one of you is going to help me do the shopping?"

**X**

Neha had volunteered to accompany Anna into the stores. They had left Joe stood in the back of the truck with Anna's sniper rifle in case of any danger, Ella still sleeping in her car seat at his feet.

"Blankets, pillows, medicines, books," Anna had told Neha "We've got a decent supply at the compound but everything runs out eventually. Take stuff while you have the chance." She grabbed several rolls of bin liners and tore a bunch off for herself, a bunch for Neha.

The women moved quickly through the stores, gathering up anything that could potentially be of use; seed packets, batteries, anything. The whole place had been turned over but it looked as though people had been more anxious to take things like the cash-registers. Looter mentality.

Anna dedicated two entire bin liners to baby products – diapers, powdered milk, clothes, teething rings, bottles, sterilisation fluid, gripe water. She even grabbed a set of baby monitors as an afterthought, and inwardly cursed herself for not thinking of this before – what made her think that among survivors, there wouldn't be a baby or young child?

Eventually, the back of Anna's truck was full and they were able to get back on the road "Not long now." Anna had reassured Neha as she clambered into the Cadillac's driving seat for her shift, her eyes drooping.

They were just on the outskirts of the town when a flash of movement to Anna's left caught her eye. She slowed the truck to get a better look. To their left was a body of dense woodland, dark and uninviting. Anna stared hard into it, trying to figure out what she'd seen. She heard the Cadillac pull up alongside her "Anna?" Joe was leaning out of the window "Are you OK?"

Anna didn't turn to face him "There's someone in those woods."

"You mean, like a zombie? Then we should leave..." Joe sounded nervous.

"No," Anna frowned, "Too quick."

As soon as she said it, she saw it again; a figure in blue darting between the trees "There!" she exclaimed, "Did you see?" she turned to Joe who nodded "Yeah. There's someone in there."

"Do you think they know we're here?" Neha asked.

"It's difficult to tell." Anna leaned right out of the cab window "Should I sound the horn?"

"No!" both Joe and Neha hissed. Anna stared at them, wide eyed. They looked at one another sheepishly "Noise attracts them." Neha explained. Anna formed an 'Oh' with her mouth and turned back toward the spot where she had seen the figure.

Moments lapsed. They all stared at the woods, desperately trying to catch another glimpse. Eventually, Neha cleared her throat "Look, it's too dangerous to go in and get them even if they are alive. And I hate to say it but if they're on foot, chances are they're not. And they're probably not alone."

"Yeah," Anna murmured, tearing her gaze away and starting the truck up again "Yeah, you're probably right."

**X**

**Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks again to Leyshla Gisel and LicoriceEchidna for their lovely reviews! Sorry it's taken me so long to update!**

**Chapter Three**

** X**

_The watery sunlight was creeping over the top of the buildings in the city and Anna glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes left until the end of her shift. She yawned and began to clear up the bloodied bandages from the patient who had arrived with what he insisted was a kitchen injury but was clearly a stab wound. She hated nights. _

"_Anna?" Helen called over the top of the curtain "Have you got time for one more?"_

_Anna felt her heart sink as thought of a cup of tea and a warm bed flickered and moved just beyond her grasp. She took a deep breath and drew back the curtain with a bright smile "Why not?"_

_Helen was a tiny but severe looking Sister. Nobody crossed her, not even the roughest, meanest patients. She ran the Accident and Emergency like it was a military operation. Her thin lips gave Anna a brief smile as she jerked her head toward the waiting room "Bloke in the suit. Says he needs to be cleaned up before going home to his wife if you catch my drift. Triage think he might have broken a rib or two and he definitely needs stitches in his arm."_

_Trudging out into the waiting room, Anna spotted him almost immediately. He definitely didn't belong in this A&E - or even this part of London. His suit wasn't made of paper, for a start. _

"_Mr Smith?" He looked up when she called his name (Right. HIS name). A handsome face that Anna guessed looked worn out normally, but was now also sporting a black eye and split lip. He smiled as politely as the pain in his ribs would let him "That's me, nurse."_

"_Follow me." She led him into the cubicle "So the bondage got a bit out of hand did it?" he nodded "Any other injuries I should know about?"_

"_No." He squinted as she shone a torch in his eyes to check his pupil reactions "Apart from the bump on your head indicating that you've been hit with something heavy enough to knock you out?" He blanched at this, staring at her with wide eyes._

_Anna ignored his discomfort and turned away to set up her instruments "That's not standard practise for Bondage. I'm not saying I'm familiar with the scene, but you get to learn the process working here. I'm guessing that you wanted to say you were mugged but that would mean getting the police involved. This brings me to the conclusion that you were either committing a crime when you got hurt or – much more likely – you were tied up and beaten for some reason that you can't divulge." _

"_I'm sure I don't know what you mean." He was cool. Cool enough to be lying. _

"_I mean, I'm not actually interested in why you got hurt. Really, I'm more concerned as to whether we should give you a tetanus jab for that cut on your arm. The brothels around here are kept super clean to avoid any unwanted attention. So if that's where you've been, you probably won't need one." She turned back with a cheerful smile and a syringe full of local anaesthetic "Shall we stitch up that arm of yours?" _

_He offered the injured limb silently. In fact, he didn't say a word until she was nearly finished. _

"_Can I have that tetanus jab please?" _

X

It was almost a fortnight since they had arrived back at the compound and they were already slipping into a pattern. Having been shown every inch of the place, Joe had insisted they set up a watch despite Anna's protests that the walls were safe. She agreed without much of a fight though; it seemed churlish to argue given that she knew less about surviving outside the compound than they did. She reasoned inwardly that eventually they would come to feel safe enough to realise a watch was unnecessary. Between the three of them, they arranged for one to be on watch one night in three, sitting on the roof with a pair of binoculars and a silenced sniper rifle. So far, none of them had had cause to use it.

It felt weird having other people around again. Anna had to stop herself from crying out in surprise whenever she rounded a corner and nearly collided with Joe or Neha. She had gotten too used to being alone.

Upon arrival, she had led the tired threesome into the main foyer and flicked on the main lights, illuminating the majority of the building. Neha had given her a look of abject horror "Aren't you worried about your generator running out?"

Anna had smiled and tapped her nose "Solar power, darling. There are panels all over the compound. Don't tell _me_ the US government didn't plan ahead." She watched as their eyes lit up at the prospect of being able to use as much hot water and electricity as they needed to, and at once became glad that she had taken to the decision to search out other survivors.

There were no bedrooms, but almost all of the private offices were equipped with sofas and en-suite bathrooms. Joe and Neha chose quarters near to Anna and it was decided that while Ella was still waking up in the night, they would share the responsibility between them.

Having a baby in the close vicinity had been somewhat of a culture shock. Ella was for the most part, a very happy and contented baby, but even the most contented baby requires constant attention. Joe and Neha had said that she had been born just as things were descending into chaos – Anna suspected the stress had sent her mother into labour. It wasn't unusual. Earthquakes tended to do the same thing. It had been a long time since Anna had looked after an infant – in fact, when she had been a nurse she had only worked in the baby unit for a couple of weeks covering someone's sick leave. It had actually been a relief to get back to the A&E. However, between the three of them, they somehow managed to cope.

One morning in the third week, Anna enlisted Joe's help to start clearing out the offices. It was unnerving to have to keep walking past desks adorned with open files and family photographs – almost as though the occupant had just gotten up to get a cup of coffee and would be back any second.

The main body of the office was large and open plan. There seemed little point in keeping so many desks, so together Joe and Anna set out clearing them of clutter. Joe picked up a framed photograph from the desk nearest to him "What should we do with these? We can't just dump them. They're personal property."

Anna pursed her lips. Joe was right of course, but she doubted family photographs were on the minds of their owners at the present moment "We'll box up the personal stuff and put it in the basement." She said finally "The desks we can chop up and use for fire wood." She gestured around herself "It's unlikely, but if the solar panels go bust we'll need something to burn."

"What about the case files?"

"Anything you find like that you can put in a separate box. I'll sort through it and put it back in the archives."

"Why don't we just burn those as well?"

"Paper creates a ton of smokes and burns too easily – what would be the point? We could just as easily keep them." That wasn't the real reason, but at that moment Anna didn't want to go into why she felt the records should be preserved. Not only would Joe think it stupid, it would probably extinguish the hope she had instilled in him and Neha by bringing them back.

They worked in silence a long while then, systematically de-cluttering the desks and shifting them toward the door so they could be taken outside and chopped up. Eventually Joe spoke "So what were you doing out here before the outbreak?"

Anna almost automatically went into evasive mode, before realising that it probably didn't matter if she went up to the roof and painted her job title in forty foot letters. She took a deep breath "I worked for Her Majesty's government."

Joe raised an eyebrow "Well that much is obvious – but doing what?"

Anna smiled slightly abashedly "I catch spies and terrorists."

"Jesus. So you're like, a female James Bond?"

"He does a lot more running about than I do."

Joe laughed "But seriously, is that what you do – all that espionage shit? Playing poker with Al Qaeda?"

Now it was Anna's turn to laugh "No, that's not me. The technical term for what I do is Interrogator, but I don't like to use it. I interview people. Figure out whether they're lying, whether what they say can be trusted or not."

"Did you always want to be a spy?"

"Not a spy," she corrected "And no. I trained as a nurse out of school and worked in an Emergency Department for five years before I signed the Official Secrets Act."

"That's a hell of a U-turn. Florence Nightingale to Spook. What made you choose to do that?"

"I didn't choose it. It sort of... chose me."

Joe shook his head in amused disbelief "That's crazy." They continued working in silence as Anna allowed him to assimilate this information and allowed herself to recover from openly admitting her job to a civilian for the first time.

In the end, she spoke first "What about you? What did you do back on dry land?" Joe smiled a little at her attempt to insinuate that they were drifting at sea.

"Life insurance." They stared at one another for a moment while the irony sank in before bursting into hysterical laughter.

X

"I'm thinking of going back out there to look for more survivors." Anna broached the topic the only way she could think of – bluntly. Joe and Neha stared at her across the table. Up until that moment, they'd been eating dinner and talking casually about how much firewood the desks had created for them. The late evening sun cast an orange glow over the dining area colouring the food, the walls, their faces. Anna continued.

"I think that if I drive in another direction – go west maybe – I might be able to find more people." She was met with uncomfortable silence.

"Anna," Neha started gently "It's not just the dead you have to worry about – You know from our experience that the living can be just as dangerous."

Anna smiled sadly "Don't take this the wrong way, but I knew that before I found the pair of you. Look, I'm not taking about going out and putting up posters advertising our whereabouts. Our meeting was a fortunate accident, but my plan had originally been to try and scope people from a distance, maybe infiltrate them for a while to get a feel for whether they'd be a threat or not. I know this sounds like madness, but don't you think it's worth it if there are people out there who need saving? People who are in just as much danger as you were?"

She had spoken well, but Neha didn't look convinced. Anna sighed "I know that you don't want to risk bringing anybody in who could hurt us – and for good reason – but you have to trust that out of anybody, the one person who can tell whether someone is planning something sinister or not is me."

Neha nodded silently, absently rocking Ella in her carry cot. Joe shifted uncomfortably in his chair "How long will you be gone for?"

"I can take enough spare fuel and supplies to drive for three days there and back non-stop. You know how I feel about sleeping out in the open – anymore than six days, I wouldn't trust myself not to crash."

"And what about weapons? A gun should really be your last resort. What else did they keep here?"

"Nothing really," an idea struck Anna and she smiled "At least not in the secure weapons unit."

X

And so the next day Anna clambered into the armoured truck once more, armed with several knives (and one machete) that they had dug out of the evidence room the night before. She had spent a few hours instructing both Joe and Neha in how to work the gate controls and the comms radio which she would use to alert them of her presence when she returned.

"Wish me luck." She winked at them, sounding braver than she felt. The morning air was cool and there was a thin layer of dew on the grass outside. Neha reached out to squeeze her arm through the truck window "Please come back."

Anna lay a hand over hers "I'll do my best."

X

**What do we think? **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiya! A couple of messages before we begin:**

**Leyshla Gisel: Thanks again for reviewing – I knew I could count on you! I do love Anna – she's a tough little cookie. Naive though. I don't think it's struck her how screwed up the world really is now.**

**Psychovampgurl: Thanks for your reviews, they're much appreciated! I know, I need my Daryl fix soon too! I'm afraid he doesn't make it into this or the next chapter but rest assured I'm already putting together some vignettes and Daryl and the Atlanta group will be arriving very soon ****.**

**Fanficgirl10: You know, I did consider having Anna discover Merle and I did have a little think about whether or not to include him and the Woodbury crew. At the moment, I'm not sure where I would take that. Any suggestions are welcome though!**

**Chapter Four**

**X **

Anna negotiated her way through the woodland that surrounded the facility as slowly and as quietly as the truck would allow her. It was deathly quiet save for the sound of the engine. Shafts of sunlight glittered through the leaves and through the open window she could smell the cool morning air mingling with the greenery.

Allowing the truck to idle at the edge of the forest, Anna lit a cigarette and gave a cursory glance around to check that there was no one to see her leaving. Old habits die hard. Still, it couldn't hurt to be cautious given what Neha had told her. It was sad (although not surprising) to think that the end of the world had allowed the savages to crawl out of the woodwork and become the ruling class.

A rustle to her left caught her attention. She killed the engine and with her free hand, reached for the machete on the passenger seat. Undoing her seatbelt and craning out of the window to see better, Anna strained her ears, listening for the sound again.

What felt like an age passed with only the faint chirruping of birds to be heard and Anna was beginning to think she had imagined it when in her peripheral vision she caught a flash of blue. The same flash of blue she had seen at the edge of the forest on her way back to the compound with Joe and Neha. Gripping the machete tighter, she jumped down from the cab and onto the soft grass verge "... Hello?"

The movement was barely perceptible. A pair of eyes and a skinny hand peeking out from behind a tree. This was not typical zombie behaviour. Anna took a step closer "Hello?" she repeated "Are you alright?"

The owner of the eyes – a slight teenage girl, probably around seventeen – crept around to stand in front of the tree. Her dark eyes were wide and she looked half starved. The periwinkle blue t-shirt that had caught Anna's eye looked as though it used to be fitted but now it hung on her. Her arms and face were streaked with dirt and in her tiny hand she clutched a flathead screwdriver caked with dried blood.

"I won't hurt you, precious" Anna said gently, her heart aching for the girl. She reminded her of the domestic abuse victims who came to the A&E – the terrified unblinking stare, the arms wrapped around the midriff as though it might provide some sort of protection "My name is Anna. What's yours?"

"H – Holly." The word was stammered and seemed to shake as it left her lips. Anna wondered how long it had been since she'd been in contact with other living people. She smiled and spoke soothingly "Hello Holly." She took another step forward and Holly shrank back against the tree trunk "Don't be afraid. Are you hungry?" Anna turned to rummage through the supplies in her truck and brought out some dried meat. She held it out to Holly "Here. You can take it."

Holly stared at the dried meat that Anna was proffering as though it might bite her. Eventually, she edged closer and closer until Anna could see the dirt and blood matted in her hair. Nobody that young should have dark circles under their eyes. Tentatively, Holly reached out a trembling hand for the meat. Anna was so intent on keeping her own movements to a minimum so as not to scare the girl that she barely heard the shambling movements and hissing groans of the three zombies as they staggered up behind her.

Holly saw them first, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly as she sank back towards the tree once more. Anna turned to find them closing in on her, their arms outstretched and scrabbling for her. She raised her machete and ran it through the skull of the first.

Getting it completely stuck.

"Fuck!" she swore through gritted teeth and tried to wrench it free, all the while watching the zombie lurching closer toward her, hunger in his eyes. His clawed hands were closing around her wrist as she wrangled the machete free, sending herself sprawling backwards and taking the zombie with her. It writhed clumsily atop her, trying to sink its rancid teeth into her throat. With a shriek of frustration, Anna tightened her grip on the machete and drove it into the zombie's eye socket, felling it immediately.

No time to assimilate, Anna pushed the corpse off of herself and jumped to her feet, looking around for the third zombie. Instead, her eyes met with another felled corpse, the handle of a flathead screwdriver protruding from the top of its skull. Holly was gone.

"Holly?" Anna didn't dare shout too loud for fear of attracting more zombies, but she didn't want to leave the kid to the forest; especially not now she was unarmed. She pulled the screwdriver out of the corpse's head and wiped it on the grass to get rid of the worst of the muck, all the time listening for the tell-tale rustling among the tree. Minutes passed. She heard nothing.

Holly must have fled while she was grappling with the second zombie – if she had any sense she'd be long gone by now. Anna didn't blame her; she was a classic trauma victim. All of her peripheral behavioural functions would have shut down a while ago, her brain focussing only on survival. It was probably the only reason she was still alive. Anna left the screwdriver at the base of a tree trunk in case Holly decided to come back for it.

Scanning the area one last time before and she clambered into the truck, Anna's eyes fell on the ground where the slain zombies now lay and she laughed out loud in spite of herself before lighting a new cigarette, gunning the engine and driving away.

The beef jerky that Anna had offered Holly and dropped in the scuffle was nowhere to be seen.

X

She had noticed something about the zombies. There were lone ones, yes. But mostly they seemed to travel in packs. This was puzzling as they didn't seem to be wholly conscious of one another – rather, they hadn't chosen to move around in groups for reasons of safety or efficiency but seemed unconsciously drawn together, moving as one. So far, Anna hadn't had to deal with more than six together by herself, and even that had nearly been the end of her. It made her shiver to think what a larger group of them could do.

Little did she know that she was about to find out.

She had been driving now for two days without seeing a single living person. Her knuckles and the backs of her hands were sunburnt where they had been sat on the wheel for so long. In the absence of sunblock, she had wrapped bandannas around them and tried to ignore the stinging pain every time she flexed her fingers.

On her map she could see a highway running through a valley with a smaller road running parallel above it at the top of a steep verge. No question about which one she would take. Anna took a quick inventory of her fuel and decided that it would be fine for her to drive for a couple of miles or so, scoping the highway from higher up. After that, she would have to start back toward the compound. She had covered a lot of ground on this run, and a small part of her had been expecting to come across survivors almost straight away as she had with Joe and Neha. But no such luck. She didn't want to believe it, but the thought that she may never find more people was beginning to take root.

She'd been following for highway for around half an hour when something made her slow the truck down to take a look. There had been some sort of accident – people in their haste to get away not concentrating on the road ahead. Anna counted five cars in the pile-up altogether, some with bodies hanging out of windows where they had attempted to wriggle free. For about ten yards back either side of the accident cars had stopped, unable to get around the obstacle.

Anna parked up on the opposite side of the road and exited the truck. She stood at the edge of the bank for a moment, surveying the destruction. She was considering clambering down the slope to get a closer look when she heard the rumble of several engines in the near distance. At first, it didn't occur to her to hide until Neha's warning came back to her. These people could potentially be dangerous. They would have to stop when they reached the accident – if she lay on her stomach at the top of the verge she could watch them in secret for a while and then make herself known.

She could see the cars now. Checking around one last time for zombies, Anna dropped to her stomach and rested her chin on her hands.

There were three vehicles in total – a beaten up truck and two station wagons. They travelled in a sad little convoy up the highway before reaching the obstacle in their path. As Anna predicted, they stopped and checked the coast was clear before alighting from their cars. The truck housed a large balding man toting a shotgun slung over his shoulder. From one of the station wagons emerged a couple and a young girl no more than seven or eight, and from the other an elderly couple wearing matching sweaters.

"How in the hell are we going to get around this, Mike?" The guy with the woman and girl asked man with a shotgun "You said we were too exposed if we took the high road!"

Mike rounded on him aggressively "You think I planned this, Mackenzie? You think I coulda seen this comin'? Huh?"

"Jamie, don't start. He couldn't possibly have known." The younger woman leaned tiredly against the bonnet of the station wagon, her free hand holding the little girl's.

"Should we go back? Take the high road instead?" The older woman asked, looking worried from her husband to the one called Mike, who shook his head.

"No, we're not doing that. It's a waste of fuel."

"Right. Fuel that we're going to use to get past this pile-up how, exactly?" Jamie said sarcastically "We don't actually have a choice, Mike. Either we go back or we stay sitting ducks."

Mike seemed to chew on this for a moment and Anna considered showing herself. These people weren't dangerous – a little sick of one another maybe, but not dangerous. She was just shifting to stand up when she heard the little girl scream. Looking down at the group she saw that the child was pointing back in the direction from which they'd come. Anna followed the direction of her finger and what she saw made her blood freeze in her veins.

At least sixty zombies were staggering toward them up the highway. Anna had never seen that many together before and in that instant, she found herself unable to move or breathe. It would be literally impossible to fight that many off.

Staggering to her feet clumsily, she began waving her arms to get their attention "Hey! Up here!"

The older man saw her first and upon her frenzied gesturing for them to begin climbing the slope toward her, alerted the others. The young couple ran toward her first, the little girl between them, but suddenly the woman stopped "The baby!" She turned to run back but her husband caught her and turned her back toward the slope "I'll go! Just get Emily out of here!" he started back toward the station wagon and his wife, with the help of the older man and woman, began to usher the little girl up the steep verge. Anna took her eyes from the little girl for a second to estimate how much time they had. Her heart sank when she realised it was very little.

A shot rang out and one the zombies fell. Mike had clambered onto the roof of the elderly couple's station wagon and had begun picking them off. It was little use though; they were already clambering up to get to him. He managed to fight a couple off but they overpowered him in seconds. The younger man – Jamie - had retrieved the baby from his car and had started toward to slope but Mike's screams of anguish distracted him "Keep going!" Anna screamed "Don't stop now!"

This seemed to do the trick and he began to run again, cradling his child in his arms. A large amount of the zombies had surrounded the car, trying to get at Mike, but the rest had broken off and were shambling toward the verge, where a fresher meal was attempting to get away. Anna watched in horror as the older man was caught by two of them and dragged backward.

"Richard!" his wife screamed and began to reach for him, losing her footing as she began to go back down the verge.

"Go!" Richard yelled back "Get out of here!"

Anna felt a hand on her arm and looked down to see the little girl being pushed to the top of the verge by her mother. Leaping into action, Anna grabbed the girl and hauled her to safety. She turned back to see the older woman scrabbling to the top, her fingers grabbing at the long grass. Anna dropped to her stomach once more and grabbed her hands to help her to the top.

Things were deteriorating fast. Most of the zombies had been distracted by the capture of Mike and Richard, but a few stragglers were determined to get to the remaining survivors. Anna turned to the older woman "Get the girl in the truck!" she ordered sharply before turning her attention back to the younger woman, who was reaching down to take the baby from her husband as he struggled up the bank. No sooner had she taken the baby and handed it up to Anna did her husband look back and spy the number of zombies behind him. He looked back up at his wife, and then at Anna. In that moment, an understanding passed between them and Anna realised what he was going to do. She could only watch as, ignoring his wife's screams, he turned and held his arms out for the flesh eating monsters to clamp onto. His wife began to move toward him, staggering back down the slope. She was nearly there when Anna reached out and grabbed a handful of the back of her shirt just as two of the undead turned and began to reach out for her, clawing at her outstretched arms. Anna buried the machete in both of their heads and began to drag the woman back up the slope.

The older woman was already in the truck with the two children by the time they got there, the young woman crying and screaming hysterically as Anna practically carried her. Bundling her in to the passenger side, she sprinted to the driver's side and had the key in the ignition and truck moving before the door had even swung shut.

X

**Phew! That was a heavy one! **

**Oh, and you might have already seen this in the summary – I'm taking on suggestions for a new title because I'm not 100% happy with the current one. Would love to hear from you!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Now, due to popular demand, I've purposely written two chapters so nobody has to wait much longer for the beautiful Daryl Dixon to make an appearance. I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and I'm sorry for how long it's taken Anna to find the main group. I sort of need to find the balance between giving an appropriate amount of background information for the original characters. **

**Chapter Five**

**X**

For a long time, nobody spoke. Anna gripped the steering wheel so tight she felt the sunburnt skin on the back of her hands begin to stretch and blister. She gritted her teeth and stared straight ahead. Some of the zombies had tried to climb into the bed of the truck as she drove off and despite their lower limbs crumbling away as she had picked up speed, two of them still hung on to the back leaving a bloody trail along the road.

Eventually, when Anna was confident that they were clear of the larger pack, she screeched to a halt. Jumping down from the cab she quickly dispatched the two hangers-on and grabbed a few bottles of water from the truck bed. Clambering back into the cab, she glanced at her passengers. The younger woman sat in the far passenger seat with her head resting against the window staring into space, her arms gripping the toddler tightly. The older woman held the girl on her lap. All four of them looked shell-shocked.

The small girl was the first to react when Anna proffered the bottles of water, her tiny hands reaching out and her baby blue eyes glistening. Anna smiled gently and loosened the lid before giving it to her. The older woman, her face streaked with tears, helped her to hold the bottle as she guzzled down the water. Anna wondered just how long it had been since they'd had proper drinking water. She reached across and gently nudged the younger woman's arm. Flinching and blinking as though coming out of a trance, she turned hollow eyes on Anna, staring at the bottle of water as though it were an unexploded bomb. Eventually she shook her head no. Anna gestured to the silent toddler in her arms "For the little one, then."

The woman looked down at the infant as though she had not been aware of its presence before then. The child stared back silently with huge doe eyes, still unsure what to make of everything in this terrifying new world. Without taking her eyes from the child, she beckoned for the water "Thank you." She whispered. Anna checked around to make sure they were still alone on the road.

"There's more in the back of the truck, as well as some food." Neither of them answered "My name is Anna, by the way."

The older woman nodded toward her "I'm Judy, this is Maria," She gestured to the younger woman, who didn't seem to hear her "And this is Emily and Bobby." At the sound of his name, the toddler stopped drinking the water to repeat it "Bobby." His voice was tiny and quiet.

"That's all he can say." Emily offered, her head now resting on Judy's shoulder. They all looked exhausted.

"One day, you'll wish that was true." Anna smiled wryly before restarting the engine "Listen, I don't want to bombard you with this so soon, but I have a safe house that I can take you to."

"No such thing as safe, only safer." Emily murmured, her eyes drifting shut "That's what daddy says." At these words, Maria began to cry, silent tears streaming down her face as she clutched her son. Anna felt the back of her own eyelids begin to prickle. She cleared her throat "Well, this place is probably safer than most. It's a gated government compound that I was working at before all of this started. I've been trawling the roads for survivors for a while. I found three others a few weeks back and they're all there now."

They didn't respond right away. Glancing over, Anna noticed that Emily and Bobby had fallen fast asleep, and Maria had resumed staring out of the window. Judy seemed to be the only one still vaguely alert so Anna tried to appeal to whatever sense of logic she had left "Judy? What do you think?"

Judy blinked at her, seemingly unaware of her new status as decision-maker. She stared down at the dozing children and then across to Maria before nodded "That's fine. I mean thank you," Her eyes began to shine "Thank you for saving us."

X

They drove through the night, stopping only once to refuel. The women and children slept through this and it gave Anna the chance she needed to think.

Living humans were in the minority now, that much was obvious. How had this spread so far, so fast? Was it in the air? The water? Were they all infected? That had to be the only explanation – it had to be something they all did, or ate, or drank. Could it be cured? Was someone working on a vaccine? The compound had had some contact with the CDC labs before radio silence – she knew they had been working on something. Europe had been in much the same state – her last update from the home office had told her that every lab had been working around the clock to come up with some answers. Civilians had been told to go about their business as normal but every day, less and less people were making it home.

Dawn was thinking about breaking. Early morning sunlight clambered over the horizon and crept over the landscape. It was at this point she decided to risk stopping the truck. After checking around to make sure that they were alone on the road, Anna settled herself in the truck bed and lit a cigarette.

She was alone for a few minutes before she heard somebody stirring inside the truck. The passenger door opened and Maria stepped down, Bobby still fast asleep in her arms. She settled him back on the seat and gently closed the door again. Anna watched her walk around the truck and hoist herself gingerly onto the tailgate, wrinkling her nose at the dried blood staining it "Can I please have one of those?" she gestured to the cigarette. Anna slipped one from the packed and lit it from her own before handing it over "Thanks."

She looked thoroughly unwell. Not that you could expect anyone to be the picture of health when they'd just watched their husband get eaten by undead cannibals and then spent the night in a truck, but Maria looked as though she might be coming down with the flu into the bargain. She was pale and drawn; shivering slightly but with a clammy sheen on her forehead. She smoked the cigarette like an ex-pro, staring out over the horizon as she exhaled a great plume of smoke into the air. Anna waited, knowing that she hadn't left the relative safety of the cab just for a smoke.

"Where did you come from?"

"Kent originally, but that's not what you meant. I've been trawling the roads looking for survivors for a while now. Yesterday I just happened to be in the right place at the right time... in a manner of speaking." Anna took a deep drag on her cigarette "I'm sorry about your husband."

Maria smiled sadly "Me too."

"What were you doing on the highway?"

"We were in Georgia when this all started. We made for the CDC in Atlanta but it was already too late. There were bodies everywhere. We took one look and turned around. There were stories on the radio about refugee centres being overrun. We didn't know what to do so we just drove. Along the way we found Mike, Richard and Judy. It seemed safer to travel in groups so we stuck together," Maria flicked her cigarette butt into the dirt "So you've been scouting for survivors? What are you, some kind of lunatic? Did you do something real bad that you're trying to atone for?"

_Not exactly_. Anna fiddled with her lighter "In a world like this, surviving day to day isn't enough. It's important to hang on to our humanity, and that means not just looking out for number one, however tempting it may be."

Maria didn't answer for a moment, instead fixing her eyes on a lone zombie in a distant field; too far away to be an immediate threat "So you'll take care of my kids?"

Anna frowned "I'm not sure what you mean."

Maria turned to face her, tears threatening to fall once more. Slowly, she rolled up her sleeve to reveal a deep and angry scratch on her forearm "When the herd attacked us and I want back for Jamie... one scratched me. It's only a matter of time now." Anna knew that she was right.

Maria held out the arm for Anna to inspect it. The scratch was deep, the skin around it hot and angry looking. She reached out and placed a hand on her forehead. The beginnings of a fever. Anna withdrew her hand "I'm so sorry..." she whispered. Maria gave her arm a comforting squeeze.

"Don't be. You helped save my kids and gave me one more night with them. The only thing I need to know is that they'll be safe with you."

Anna found it hard to hold back tears "I'll do my best."

"Thank you."

"What will you do?"

Maria smiled shakily "I'm going to take a walk." She clambered down from the truck bed and dusted herself off. She nodded to Anna "Good luck." She began to walk away. It was such a small gesture that Anna found it hard to believe that she wasn't simply stretching her legs and would soon return. A thought suddenly occurred to her "Maria, wait." She began to root through her supplies before scrambling down from the truck bed herself, holding a small bag containing a few bottles of water, some food, and one of her spare packets of cigarettes "Take these. It could be a while."

Maria took the bag and squeezed Anna's arm in a gesture of thanks "Take care of my kids. Tell them I love them and..." Her voice cracked "and tell Judy... tell Judy I'm sorry."

X

Anna had watched Maria walk off in the direction from which they had come, watched her get smaller and smaller in the distance until eventually she disappeared. She had accepted it so readily; had left so willingly. Death was too commonplace now. It had felt wrong just letting her walk away but they had both known there was nothing to be done.

Judy and the children hadn't woken up right away. Maria had been gone nearly an hour and a half before Anna had started the truck once more and it was another three hours before they even stirred.

"Where's mommy?" Emily's voice drifted into her thoughts, still full of sleep. Anna glanced over and gave her a reassuring smile, also checking that Bobby was still secure in the far passenger seat "Mummy... Has gone away for a while, petal. But she has asked that Judy and I and my friends take care of you for a while." Judy caught the meaningful look that Anna sent her and her eyes filled with tears.

"Where did she go?"

"I'm... I'm not too sure darling. But she loves you both very very much." Anna could feel the gaze of the serious little girl on her and gripped the steering wheel tightly "I think you'll like where I'm taking you. There's lots of open spaces to run around in, and plenty of hot water and food..."

"Are there other kids?"

"Right now, there's only one. And she's a baby. But I hope that there will be more people soon."

"Do you always know where to look for people?"

"No, I usually just drive in one direction as far as I can and then drive back." They had reached the edge of the forest that surrounded the compound. Anna deliberately drove off-road so that tracking the truck would be more difficult. Emily stopped asking questions and stared out of the truck, entranced by the sunlight falling through the foliage. At Anna's nod, Judy allowed her to wriggle forward slightly to get a better look out of the window.

Eventually Anna found the clearing she was looking for and stopped the truck. The slain zombies lay decomposing on the ground "I just have to check something here." Anna explained to Judy before jumping down from the cab and making her way toward the tree where she had first seen Holly. Scanning the ground she smiled when she realised that the screwdriver was gone. Hoping that this meant what she thought it meant, Anna turned to get back into the truck when she heard a twig snap. Her hand went to the knife at her waist and she held a finger to her lips for Judy and the children.

"You came back." The words made Anna jump out of her skin. Whirling around she caught sight of a familiar skinny figure emerging from the trees. Holly looked even more malnourished and gaunt than before. Her jeans were ripped at the knees and there were purple bruises consistent with several falls on her arms "Didn't think you'd live." She muttered. Anna smiled in spite of herself.

"I'm stronger than I look. Will you come with us?"

Holly shook her head vehemently "No more groups. Groups are bad." She wrapped her arms around herself and began to back away. Anna reached out a hand "Holly, I promise not to hurt you – I can take you somewhere safe. There are others in the truck."

"Are you all by yourself?" a little voice piped up from behind Anna. Once she had ascertained that they weren't dealing with Zombies, Emily had wriggled free from Judy's grasp and clambered down from the cab. Holly started and stared at the small girl as though she had never come across one before "I – I am now." She stammered.

Emily cocked her head to one side like Snow White listening to the animals. Judy had scrambled out of the truck after her and stood with her hands on Emily's shoulders, but this didn't stop the child's questions "Did you lose your group?"

"Didn't lose them. Left them." Holly stared hard at the ground, seemingly trying hard to forget something she'd rather not remember.

"You should come with us. My mommy asked Anna to take care of us until she comes back."

"That's right," Anna jumped on this, mentally noting what a good interviewer the kid would make "And I promise that if you don't like it where we go, you don't have to stay."

Holly bit her lip, her eyes thoughtful and anxious. She rubbed nervously at her arms and Anna was wondering what sort of psychological trauma she had suffered at the hands of the people she had been travelling with when Emily slipped past her and moved to stand in front of Holly. She held up a hand. Holly stared for a moment before reaching out with a shaking hand and taking Emily's smaller one and allowing herself to be led to the truck.

X


	7. Chapter 7

**Here we are, then. I'm sorry he doesn't make more of an appearance in this chapter, but at least you know the zombie hunter with a heart of gold has finally turned up in time for his starring role in this story.**

**Chapter Six**

**X**

_It was about a week later when Anna saw the suited man again. Helen had caught her in the hallway as Anna emerged from assisting in the removal of a remote control from a middle aged woman "Nurse Spencer, there's a gentleman here to see you. He's in the waiting room. I think you might have treated him last week – the bloke that came in from the brothel."_

_The waiting room was empty except for the middle aged suited gentleman she had stitched up the previous week. Anna couldn't place him for a few seconds and when she did, she frowned "What are you doing here?" _

"_I came to see you."_

_Oh dear. This wasn't good. Every so often some weirdo would pitch up at the A&E and get a fixation on one of the staff. Seemingly it was her turn. _

_Clearly the expression on her face signalled to 'Mr Smith' that he had said the wrong thing and he blushed, struggling to correct himself "Oh God, I didn't mean it like that. I promise I'm not a lunatic."_

"_That's good to know."_

_They stood in awkward silence for a moment before she shifted uncomfortably "Was there something you wanted? It's just that I'm still on shift..."_

"_Yes actually. I came to see if you would be interested in Intelligence."_

_Anna blinked "I think I have enough, thanks."_

_He laughed slightly and lowered his voice "No, I mean Intelligence work. I think you'd have a talent for it. You knew that I was lying last week. I think you'd make an excellent interrogator."_

_So he actually was a nut job "That's very flattering but -"_

"_Look, I know how strange this sounds. I must be coming off like the mad people you get in here all the time, but I'm deadly serious. I'd like to recruit you. You don't have to answer right now, but take this," he handed her a mobile phone "and think about my offer. I can't go into too much detail until I know you're interested so in twenty-four hours that phone will ring. If you're interested, pick up. If not, then just bin the phone. Oh," he added "And I'd appreciate it if you keep this to yourself should you decide to turn us down."_

_Anna nodded, speechless, as he swept from the waiting room. She stared at the phone in her hands. _

_There was no way she was going to answer it._

**X**

Upon their immediate return to the compound, Anna had made introductions and then taken Joe, Neha and Judy aside to recount her journey. When she told Joe and Neha about the herd, they both visibly paled "Did you know they travelled in such big groups like that?" Anna asked. They both shook their heads "The most we ever saw together was twelve or thirteen."

"It was the first time we'd seen that many either," Judy said "But in the weeks beforehand, there seemed to be more and more about."

"They seem to hunt by scent and sound," Joe offered "I guess it makes sense that they'd all be drawn to the same thing."

Neither Joe or Neha wanted her to leave again so soon, but Anna was insistent "There are bound to be more survivors out there that we could give shelter to. It's not right for me to just stop looking. I need you two to help Judy hold down the fort until I get back."

Neha had frowned concernedly at Anna's eagerness to ship back out so soon, but Anna chose to ignore it.

She didn't leave it long before going out again. Having seen what a herd of zombies could do, she felt that finding any survivors was now more important than ever. She had been worried about Holly settling in and being around the others, but it took less time than anticipated. Emily followed her everywhere and initially this had been a concern given the older girl's clear instability, but Holly seemed oddly calmed by the presence of the tiny girl. Once they had all cleaned themselves up, Emily had once again taken Holly's hand and together they had roamed the hallways not speaking, simply comforted by each other.

**X**

Anna decided that the inside of the truck was becoming far too familiar as she entered her third day on the route south. She had driven into Georgia as dawn had broken and hadn't stopped as the sun had continued its merciless ascent into the sky. Everything int he cab was too hot to touch and Anna had to stop herself from turning on the air conditioning to save fuel. Logic (and Maria's previous account) told her to stay away from the capital and stick to the back roads as she had done before, but somewhere along the way a wrong turn (Which she was still angry with herself about) had taken her onto a highway. She was so sick of the feel of the steering wheel under her hands that when she came upon a reason to get out, she almost smiled.

Even though that reason was several hundred abandoned cars stretching back as far as the eye could see.

Pushing her wayfarers up onto her head to hold her hair back momentarily, she tucked her knife into her back pocket and opted to carry the machete. Anna dug a backpack out of the truck bed and filled it with water bottles, a few provisions, two packs of cigarettes and some medical supplies should she need them, and set off, weaving her way amongst the cars.

The sun was scorching. Anna could feel the top of her head burning and tried to ignore the sweat trickling down her back. The highway was seemingly deserted and she picked her way amongst the abandoned vehicles as stealthily as a cat, her boots making no sound on the boiling tarmac.

She had walked maybe half a mile before coming to something that made her stop in her tracks. There had been a small-scale scuffle and a few slain zombies lay amongst the cars. No fresh bodies but definitely recent blood spillage in a few places – either someone had already been turned and wandered off (unlikely) or it had been an unrelated injury.

Moving a little further on, she saw something white out of the corner of her eye. There was food and water piled up on the back of a car, with a message scrawled on the back window: 'SOPHIA STAY HERE WE WILL COME EVERY DAY'.

Someone called Sophia had gone missing then. Probably a child. Anna picked up some of the food that had been left – still in date. She couldn't have been gone very long. Chances that somebody was still looking for her were fairly high.

Chances that she was still alive were not.

Anna frowned - could this be a trap? Lure other survivors with the false hope that they would be inadvertantly rescued by whoever was looking for Sophia?

Her train of thought was interrupted by the all too familiar shuffles and groans of the undead. She looked up to see ten or fifteen of them making their way toward her up the highway. _Shit. _There was no way she could take on that many at once.

Without thinking, Anna ducked low and crawled toward the barrier that separated the road from the woods that ran alongside the highway. Hopping over it, she disappeared among the trees and hoped that her scent would be lost. No such luck. Within second, six of the zombies appeared. They lurched toward her, their eyes wide and hungry. Anna got rid of two of them but no sooner had she done so did eight more stagger into her line of vision, making her blood run cold in her veins. She had never dealt with this many alone before. _Time to run, kiddo_.

Anna took off as fast as her feet would carry her, zigging and zagging as she moved deeper into the woods, hoping that this might confuse some of them and all the while dimly aware that she wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to how she might get back to the highway once this was over. Her legs pumped and her boots thumped against the forest floor, her lungs burnt with each ragged breath she took and despite her terror, she smiled grimly at the notion of a cardiac arrest killing her before any flesh-eating monster.

When she had been running for around forty five minutes, she risked a look back to see that the number chasing her had lessened to around ten. Realising with pure horror that this was probably as good as her chances were going to get, Anna stopped and waiting for the zombies to get to her before lashing out with a wild scream, striking out in all directions with her machete. In under a minute she had taken out the bulk of them and using the dregs of her terrified energy, managed to dispatch the last few stragglers.

Through eyes blurred by tears, Anna checked around to make sure that it was over before sinking to her knees and vomiting copiously. Once her stomach was relieved of its contents, she rocked back on her knees and for the first time since all of this had begun, allowed herself to weep. Hot, salty tears cascaded down her cheeks and she found herself gasping for breath.

When the worst of the crying was over, Anna wiped her hands – now covered in gore and flesh – on the grass and heaved herself to her feet still sniffling and hiccuping. Staring at her surroundings, she attempted to get her bearings. This proved unsuccesful. Biting back a howl of frustration, thinking that it would probably draw unwanted attention to herself, she instead settled for aiming a kick at a nearby tree trunk.

"This is just _perfect_." Anna muttered to herself.

"You got a funny idea of perfect, lady."

Her stomach turning to ice once more, she whirled around to face a man pointing a hefty looking crossbow directly between her eyes.

**X**

**Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed so far!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm sorry this is going to be a short chapter, but I didn't really want to leave you guys hanging for ages after that cliffie! Thanks again for the lovely reviews, and I hope you like this chapter!**

**Chapter Seven**

**X**

She didn't look dangerous, but the pieces of Geek littering the woodland floor made him suspicious. There were too many for one person to take care of, but the fact that she was grey and visibly shaking told him that the large amount of slain walkers were probably due to adrenaline fuelled accident rather than actual skill. Still, trusting somebody on sight was not something he did as a rule so until he was satisfied, the crossbow was staying where it was.

She was a slender blond with green eyes like some goddamned fairy. Despite the gore spattering her from her recent adventure, she looked reasonably clean. Her hair was recently washed and her clothes were only a few days old. She must have a truck or a car or something; the bag she was carrying didn't look like it held much.

"Where the hell did you come from?"

"I could ask you the same question." Her voice was quiet and calm, eyes never leaving the crossbow "Do you think you could put that down?"

"Not until I know what the hell you're doin' on my turf, lady."

X

Despite not having quite recovered from her most recent adventure, Anna went into Autopilot. This was not her first time staring something sharp in the eye. She squared her shoulders and glared back at the crossbow. She felt herself sigh laboriously to show her indifference to him as she inwardly calculated the likelihood of this man actually being a lunatic. Show. No. Fear.

"I haven't been bitten and I'm not going to kill you. I think that's probably all you need to know."

The man exhaled heavily through his nostrils as he stared her out. Seemingly, he eventually came to the conclusion that she wouldn't be able to get the jump on him and lowered the crossbow. Not a lunatic then. For the first time Anna was able to get a decent look at him. Tall and solidly built, his faced was weather beaten and caked with sweat and dirt, the expression on it glowering at her, waiting for an explanation.

"Are you the one looking for Sophia?" at this he blanched slightly, but recovered enough to shoot her a dirty look.

"What in the hell do you know about Sophia?"

"I saw the sign on the highway. Judging by the dates on the food, she hasn't been gone long."

He stared at her "You're a long way from the highway."

Anna's heart sank. That's what she had been afraid of. She smiled grimly "Yeah. I've heard being chased by zombies will do that to you."

They were at stalemate. There was a moment of silence while they stared one another out. Anna couldn't work out whether he expected her to wilt under his gaze or fly at him with her machete. He seemed constantly tense and poised for action. A true hunter. She noticed his finger was still on the crossbow trigger. Eventually she took a deep breath.

"My name is Anna Spencer. I've got access to a safe house and I've been driving the roads for a couple of weeks now looking for survivors."

The Hunter snorted "Safe-house? Ain't no such thing as safe these days, princess."

Anna ignored him "Are you by yourself?"

"Who's askin'?"

She stared at him, an eyebrow cocked "Well... me, obviously."

"I _mean_, what damn business if it of yours?"

She was growing impatient with this. Seemingly, he thought he was being evasive by answering her questions with questions. Time to cut out the middle man.

"So there's more than ten of you."

The Hunter's eyes widened "You been followin' us?" he hissed, taking a threatening step toward her, his grip tightening on the crossbow.

"No," Said Anna calmly "It's just the balance of probability. Looking at you, I'd say it was unlikely that you would be in a group smaller than ten given your clear communication and trust issues. And if you were alone, chances are that you would have told me instead of avoiding the question."

His mouth hung open slightly, and she could see the irritation building "Please," Anna softened her tone "Let me speak with them. With all of you."

"You think I would take you to them just like that? Some English bitch turns up outta nowhere sayin' she can save us? No chance, lady," The Hunter snorted "For all I know, you could have thirty guys ready to jump us if I take you back there..." He began to turn away. Anna was saddened by his paranoid logic, even if she wasn't surprised by it. She called after him "Even if I gave up weapons as collateral?"

That stopped him short "Why in the hell would you do that?" He spoke over his shoulder, neglecting even to look at her.

"Because I think if you were going to kill me, you'd have done it by now. And what I have to say is important. Your group needs to hear this. I don't care if that means I have to surrender my weapons to you."

The Hunter was silent again for a moment. Finally, with a small growl of 'Dammit', he whipped around on his heel and strode toward her, palm out. Once in possession of her machete and knife, he glared at her and jerked his head to the right "C'mon."

"Do you have a name?" Anna began to dig around in her bag for a cigarette while she walked behind him.

"Not one that you need to know." The Hunter grunted, not even turning to look at her. Anna rolled her eyes and took a deep drag on her cigarette.

They walked in stony silence until they reached a high rocky verge leading down to a stream. The Hunter turned to her "After you, princess."

Anna dropped her cigarette butt and stubbed it out under her boot. Shifting her bag so that it was behind her, she began to clamber down the verge. The rocks were slick and almost immediately she knew her boots weren't gaining any purchase on them.

"Hey Tinkerbell, do you think you can go any slower?" Anna gripped the rocks as tight as she could and took a deep breath before looking upward to retort. Her biting reply was lost however, and her throat tightened as she saw a zombie lurching up behind The Hunter, gore and intestines spilling from a gash in its abdomen, its jaws working hungrily "Look out!" she instinctively put her hands out in a gesture of warning and immediately lost her balance, toppling backward down the verge.

The world spun around her as she fell, cracking her head, her elbow, her knee. Upon landing, Anna could do nothing but stare at the sky in a daze, trying to assimilate. Her head pounded and something warm trickled down her forehead. She pushed herself up on her elbows, gasping with pain. She heard no noise from the top of the verge. The Hunter must have bought it. Dragging herself to her feet, Anna tried to ignore the shooting pains in her back. As she allowed her eyes to focus, Anna nearly screamed in anger and frustration as she saw another zombie staggering toward her, its bare feet ripped to shreds from the forest floor. She scrabbled around for her weapons before remembering that she had surrendered them to The Hunter. She felt her stomach turn to ice once more as the zombie grabbed her and they grappled, the scent of its rank decomposing flesh filling her nostrils making her gag. The zombie bent to sink its teeth into her shoulder. Anna used whatever strength she had left to hold it off but she felt fresh tears forming as she realised there was no way out.

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced her shoulder from behind and she felt the zombie go limp. Looking down at her shoulder, she saw a yellow bolt protruding through her shoulder and into the zombie's eye socket. The zombie began to crumple to the ground, taking her with it as they were now attached. Anna attempted to brace herself as they fell so that the arrow didn't move backwards.

"Hang on, I'm comin' down for you!" So The Hunter hadn't bought it, Anna thought to herself dimly as her vision began to blur. The nurse in her automatically began to go through her mental checklist. Low enough to puncture a lung? No. Blood loss? Likely to be high unless she could stop it. Chance of infection? Reasonable.

"Don't move." A voice in her ear and an arm around her waist signalled The Hunter's arrival "I'm gonna snap the bolt in the middle and pull it outta your shoulder, OK?"

"Wait..." Anna mumbled.

"We ain't got time to wait, Tinkerbell - "

"There's saline and dressings in the bag," Anna gasped, the pain intensifying with each moment "Y-you need to get them out for afterwards."

"Goddamnit." The Hunter growled. Anna could hear him rooting around in her bag before producing the items she had requested "OK," she felt an arm reach between her and the fallen zombie. The Hunter's hand closed around the arrow "Hold still..." Anna whimpered as he snapped the bolt and she felt it shift painfully in her shoulder before disappearing altogether.

"OK, sit up." The Hunter wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into a sitting position. He picked up the saline pod and ripped it open with his teeth. Pulling her jacket aside to expose the wound, he poured the saline liberally all over her shoulder.

"Put some pressure on it," Anna said weakly, watching blood from the wounder in her shoulder run down her arm and stain her shirt. The Hunter cocked an eyebrow at her "Yes Doctor."

"Just do it." she mumbled. The world around her was getting considerably fuzzier. She was losing too much blood. Anna felt herself sinking slowly into blackness. The Hunter pressed harder on her shoulder "Don't you dare pass out on me, ya hear?" His voice sounded like it was coming from far away. Anna felt her head lolling forward to rest against his shoulder before everything finally went dark.

**X**


	9. Chapter 9

**This chapter literally just came out of nowhere this evening. I genuinely wasn't expecting to be in the mood to write for another couple of days but actually it's good because I've got a major assignment due in two weeks so I'm not going to have spare time over the next fortnight so it was nice to get this out of my system. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and I hope you like! **

**Chapter Eight**

**X**

Anna's head was splitting. She needed fluid. How long had she been unconscious? She could feel herself trembling as she came around. The memory of The Hunter ripping the arrow from her shoulder suddenly flooded her senses and she sat bolt upright. Or at least tried to. A combination of pain from her shoulder and the battering she had received from falling down the verge brought a garbled scream and a barrage of swear words to her lips as she sank back onto the bed she now realised she had been placed in. Anna shut her eyes tight and tried to will away the pain, squeezing the cover with what she suspected she would be referring to for a while as her 'good hand'.

"Are you alright?" the sound of a door creaking open and a young woman's voice reached Anna's ears "Mmmm." Was all she could manage.

The voice took that as an invitation to move further into the room "You've been out for nearly forty-eight hours."

"It would appear that I needed the rest." Anna opened her eyes to see she was in a well lit, tidy and pleasant bedroom. The window was open and she could smell fresh sweet air as it filtered in. A slight breeze blew the net curtain away and for a brief moment she thought she could make out a red wooden barn in the distance.

The voice belonged to a pretty and petite blonde girl of around sixteen or seventeen. She stared at Anna with wide blue eyes "Daryl says he doesn't think you're dangerous."

"Who's Daryl?" Anna croaked, her mind blank for a second until it hit her. The Hunter. She licked her lips. Her mouth tasted of cotton wool "The one who found me?"

The girl nodded "He said you told him you had a safe house and you were looking for folks to take back there. He said he thought you were crazy."

"Beth." Another voice cut through their conversation. A dark haired woman had appeared in the doorway "What did Dad tell you about leavin' her alone?"

Beth shot a scowl at the older girl before leaving. Once she had left the dark hair woman gave her a small smile "I bet she didn't even give you anything to drink."

Anna shook her head wordlessly and the dark haired girl moved toward the bedside table where a glass of water was already resting "I bought this in an hour or so ago. I figured you'd be wakin' up soon." She held the glass to Anna's lips and allowed her to drink. When she'd had enough, the girl placed the glass back on the side "I'm Maggie."

"Anna."

"I know. Daryl told us."

Anna shifted in the bed, glancing down at her shoulder "Who stitched me up?"

"My dad."

"It's a good stitch job."

"He's a good veterinarian." Maggie paused "Are you a doctor? You had a lot of medical supplies in your bag, and Daryl told us you knew what to do when he pulled the bolt out of your shoulder."

"I used to be a nurse."

"You mean before the world ended?" There was a hint of exasperation in Maggie's voice, and Anna guessed that she was a woman already deeply tired of lamenting for the old days. Her expression seemed to ask why everyone wasn't just getting used to it.

Anna shook her head "Before I got a new job."

"And what was that?"

"It's a long story."

**X**

_Anna stared at the phone on her kitchen table over the top of her cup. She didn't know why, but she'd carried it with her for the rest of her shift, feeling it burning a hole in her pocket. Her initial instinct had been to throw it straight in the bin, but something had made her keep hold of it. She told herself that she couldn't throw it out before it rang; some other random person might pick it up and cause an international incident. Wasn't that the sort of thing that the tabloids loved?_

'_Stop it. You're actually starting to believe that this is real.' Anna scolded herself and tried to focus on what she might do with her day off._

_She wasn't even interested in working for the security service, was she? It had never occurred to her that she was meant for anything other than nursing. A glance at the clock told her that her twenty-four hours was nearly up. Once it rang, she would bin the phone and that would be that, she told herself. _

_And yet... when the man had said that she had a talent for interviewing, a spark had lit within her. She always knew the liars on sight. In the A&E she was known for it. Patient won't tell you what they've overdosed on? Send them to Anna. Something doesn't quite add up? Send it to Anna. She had a knack for getting the truth out of people._

_What on earth was she thinking of? This was madness. It wasn't even real for God's sake. It was all too much like a spy novel. In real life, someone wouldn't just turn up out of the blue and offer you a job in the espionage game on the strength of half an hour's conversation and a gut feeling. Anna felt herself begin to laugh at the absurdity of it all._

_Then the phone rang._

_She stared at it in shock for a moment, her stomach jolting unpleasantly before settling again. She allowed herself a small smile at the attempt at wit as the overtures of 'You Only Live Twice' echoed around her kitchen. Picking it up, she moved to throw it in the bin, but found she couldn't seem to find it in her to throw it away. Staring hard at the still ringing phone in her hand for a minute, Anna let out a sigh of resignation before pressing the 'Answer Call' button and pressing the phone to her ear._

"_Hello?" _

_**X**_

"You lost a reasonable amount of blood, young lady." Maggie's father Hershel was a stout man with kind eyes. Maggie must have told him about her previous occupation because he checked her over thoroughly without mincing his words "And I doubt you'll have a full range of movement in this arm ever again."

"Still beats being dead I suppose."

"Naturally."

While all of this was going on, Anna noticed two men milling about in the doorway. Both were dark haired and well built although one was slightly more Latino in appearance, with olive skin and eyes that had the potential to be soulful were they not intense and burning with pent up rage and anxiety. The other seemed calmer, more thoughtful. Hershel noticed them loitering and upon Anna's nod, he beckoned them in.

"Try not to overexcite her; she's still very weak." His tone was warning and Anna watched as the less agitated of the two men gave Hershel a nod of respectful compliance, while the other just raised his eyebrows. Anna heaved herself clumsily into a sitting position as the two men flanked the bed. Were they police officers? Police officers had a very specific way of moving. They tended to spread out over a room in formation, playing it so that they could keep control and work in tandem with one another.

"Miss Spencer..." The less sullen man spoke first, seating himself next to the bed while the other man chose to tower over her.

"Anna."

"Anna. My name is Rick and this is my partner Shane. We'd like to talk to you about your meeting with another member of our group the other day." Definitely police officers.

"I gather he thinks I'm somewhat unhinged."

"You hafta admit, your story is a little out there." Shane spoke, raising his eyebrows at her "Why would anyone leave their safe house to search out other people? You got some kinda death wish, lady?"

"What would be the point in staying there alone? I may as well have just put a gun in my mouth," Anna was getting tired of having to explain her motives to people "Does it really matter why I'm doing it?"

"It does if I'm gonna believe you."

"Anna, this safe house... where exactly is it?" Rick held out a hand to silence Shane and Anna saw instantly that this left a bad taste in Shane's mouth.

"It's pretty far North. I drove south for nearly three days straight before I even hit Georgia."

Rick stared at her "That's a hell of a way."

"I left with enough fuel for a week's driving before I had to turn around."

Rick nodded "We know. Daryl found your truck on the highway. I hope you don't mind, but we took your keys from your bag and got him to drive it back here."

Anna waved a hand to dismiss this "Saves me having to do it."

Seemingly having grown tired with niceties, Shane stepped in once more "So this safe house. You gonna give us the skinny or what?"

Anna jutted her chin out at him "I thought _you_ didn't believe me."

"I didn't say that. I said your story would hafta get whole lot better before I even consider hauling my ass upstate."

Anna sighed "It's a gated government compound. I was working there before the outbreak. A month in, I was the only one left."

"When you say government, what do you mean? Like, the FBI?"

"CIA."

"Forgive me for pointin' out the obvious, but you're certainly not American born and bred. What the hell were you doin' there?"

"I was on secondment from the UK."

"And you just _happened _to be the only one left after everybody else bit the big one?"

"Shane, that's enough. We're not here to interrogate her." Rick's voice was quiet but firm. Shane shut his mouth, but Anna could tell by the way he was chewing his lips that he had plenty more to say.

"Look," She began "I can't force any of you to believe me, but I can tell you that it's safe. And I'm not going to _make_ anybody come with me. It's a matter of choice. You're not the first survivors that I've found. There are others already there."

A knock at the door signalled the end of their conversation when Beth entered and told Rick and Shane that it was time for them to leave. Shane opened his mouth to beg for a few minutes more and Anna smiled inwardly as Beth remained unmoved by his pleas. Beth waited until the men were out of the room before throwing Anna a brief smile "Dad told me to give you these," She held out a hand in which several pills rested "There's a painkiller and a mild sedative in there. They'll help you sleep." She handed them over before exiting the room and closing the door. Anna knocked the pills back in one and lay back in bed, allowing sleep to claim her.

**X**

"Do you believe her?"

"I don't know yet."

"For what it's worth, I think she's a nutjob."

"Yes Shane, you certainly made that clear." The two men spoke in hushed tones as they made their way back to the campsite they had set up around a hundred yards from Hershel's farmhouse "She seemed pretty normal to me."

"They all have their lucid moments, man. Daryl said - "

"Since when do you agree with anything Daryl says?"

Shane held up his hands defensively "Hey, don't get mad at me. I'm just trying to keep you grounded here. When Daryl first brought her back here and told us what she said, I thought you were gonna shake her awake yourself and ask for directions. You have no evidence that she's telling the truth."

Rick sighed "I _know_ that. I just think that until we know what she's all about, it would be a good idea _not_ to treat her like some crazy bitch. Remember, Daryl also said that she surrendered her weapons to him just so he would bring her back here. That was why he ended up shooting her. We at least owe her the benefit of the doubt."

"Whatever." Shane spat before retreating to his tent. Rick glanced over at Anna's truck, illuminated in the moonlight. For a moment, he allowed himself a tiny glimmer of hope. Maybe Anna was who she said she was. Maybe she had turned up at exactly the right time to lead them all to safety. Nobody questioned the Good Samaritan's motives, did they?

He couldn't deny that it was suspicious, but nowadays suspicion seemed to be everybody's default setting. Was it so hard to believe that there was someone left willing to risk their life in order to rescue others? Or was he so blinded by his need to protect Lori and Carl that he was grasping at straws, choosing to put his trust into a beautiful lie?

He didn't know. But he was damn sure going to find out.

**X**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Nine**

** X**

Anna awoke the next morning to the sight of Maggie holding a tray laden with food. The farmer's daughter smiled "How are you feeling?" She waited for Anna to heave herself into a sitting up position before placing the tray on her lap. Anna smiled her gratitude "Much better, thank you. There really is no substitute for rest when you're healing."

"You sound like my dad." Maggie watched Anna as she ate "Why did you stop being a nurse?"

Anna paused, a piece of toast halfway to her mouth "A man in a suit turned up and asked if I was interested in intelligence." She had gone into Autopilot without thinking. _Always be as vague and as glib as possible_. Seeing Maggie's puzzled look, she added "You know – Mi5."

Maggie's eyes widened "You're kidding."

"It sounds like it, but no."

"And you left? Just like that?"

"I couldn't tell you why I did it," Anna placed her empty tray to one side "Because I'm still not sure myself. I don't think I was unhappy as a nurse so job dissatisfaction couldn't have been the reason," She shrugged and picked at the dressing covering one of the deeper cuts on her arms "Sometimes curiosity knocks and before you realise what's happened, you've answered."

"So what, you became a spy?"

Anna smiled "Not everyone at Mi5 is a spy."

"What were you then?"

"I... get information out of people."

"You're an Interrogator?"

"I prefer Information Retrieval Specialist."

"You can call a pig a brisket but that don't make it kosher." Maggie said matter-of-factly and Anna laughed out loud, partly in surprise but partly in genuine amusement. The girl was sharp "This of course, is true."

Maggie looked pleased to have elicited such a response, but at the same time she seemed troubled still "You never... hurt anyone did you?"

Anna shook her head "I can't pretend that that sort of thing doesn't go on and they do provide you with some... training." Seeing Maggie's expression she hurried on "But it wasn't my area; in fact in my experience, pulling out someone's fingernails can be somewhat counter-productive."

"No kidding." Maggie smiled bitterly and got up to open the window. Anna breathed deeply as the warm sweet air filtered into the room "So how did it all go down here then?"

Maggie leaned heavily on the windowsill "It started real slow at first. There were stories of riots in the bigger towns and cities on the news. It didn't seem real out here in the country, not until I saw an infected person bite a little boy in the street. After that, things happened so fast. People were getting sick faster than anybody could deal with it. Eventually it was safer just to lock the doors."

Anna shivered a little at Maggie's story. Of course, in the compound they had been aware of what was going on outside (How could they not be?) but there was no getting away from the fact that despite the spread of infection among the agents everything had stayed reasonably manageable and once she was alone, there had been no chance of anything getting in unless she let them in. In the outside world however, the chaos that had erupted ran without limits. What must it have been like for people, living day to day completely exposed and vulnerable?

A knock on the bedroom door once more signalled the arrival of Hershel to check on Anna. Maggie exited the room silently with the tray as Anna submitted to further examination from the vet "How are you feeling today?"

"All the better for the rest and the food, thank you."

"I'm glad to hear it. Now, I wouldn't recommend that you go gallivantin' of into the sunset for a few days at least, but do you feel up to getting out of bed? I understand that Officer Grimes would like to speak with you again, and I got the impression last night that you felt a little... disadvantaged laying in the bed." Hershel's kind voice had a genteel southern lilt to it, and Anna felt herself warming to him. She smiled "I think I'll be fine to get up, thanks. And you're right; I did feel somewhat outnumbered."

"The young man who bought you back here made some mention of a safe house. You can understand their eagerness to talk to you. I don't think they're bad people."

"How long have you known them?" Anna accepted Hershel's outstretched hand in order to pull herself out of the bed and to her feet. A quick glance down at her battered body confirmed that she had been loaned a flowery nightdress.

"They've been here for a few days – their camp is set up about a hundred yards from the house."

"Are there many of them?"

Hershel frowned slightly as he did a mental tally "Eleven or twelve, I think. It's my understanding that they're looking for one of their number – a little girl."

So she had been right when she'd guessed The Hunter's group size the day before – What had Beth called him again? Danny? "How did they find you? Are you very close to the highway?" Seeing Hershel's look Anna smiled sheepishly "By the time I met your man I was completely lost."

Hershel looked amused "We are some way from the highway, I'm afraid. But it's simple enough to get back to."

Avoided the question about how the other survivors had found him and his family.

Interesting.

X

Anna stood under the shower for as long as a houseguest might dare to, revelling in the heat as it soothed her sore muscles and cascaded through her greasy hair. The shower gave her time to consider her imminent meeting with a group of survivors much larger than any she had encountered in previous weeks. Eleven or twelve of them plus Hershel and his daughters made a minimum of fourteen. Fourteen! Anna allowed herself a smile. People were surviving. They were making it.

X

"_What did you get from him?" Anna sighed heavily as she exited the interview room to meet Griff, one of the US agents assigned to the case "Not much more than we already knew. But at least he's admitted to being in Germany. Hopefully it's only a matter of time now. How are the labs getting on?"_

"_No further than before." Griff's mouth was set in a thin line and he looked tense. Anna knew the cause for his concern "And what about Watkins and Baker? How are they?"_

"_Not good. Watkins died forty-five minutes ago."_

_Anna felt her stomach clench with anxiety "Jesus. I'm so sorry, Griff."_

_Griff rubbed his forehead "What if we-"_

_He was cut off by sudden shouts and screams from the main foyer. Moments later shots rang out "What the hell?" Anna and Griff shot each other perplexed looks before running toward the noise. _

X

Delicately making her way down the stairs to the ground floor of the farmhouse, Anna took in her surroundings. If she didn't know better, she would have thought nothing was wrong with the world. It was a spotless family home. Smiling portraits hung on the walls, frequently dusted ornaments sat on shelves alongside books and the whole place was light and comforting. People had been happy here.

Hearing her slow descent, the younger sister – Beth, was it? – hurried out of the kitchen and smiled "Your found your clothes OK then," she gestured to Anna's leggings and t-shirt "They were pretty gross so I washed 'em for you."

Anna smiled "You're a star; thank you. Is there anything I can do to repay all of you for looking after me?"

"If you're handy with a potato peeler then I think Patricia could probably find somethin' for you later, but Daddy said that one of the cops was waitin' to speak to you. They were all out lookin' for the little girl that's missin' but he got back a little while ago. He's sat out on the porch waitin' for you. In fact," Beth briefly disappeared into the kitchen and returned seconds later holding two glasses of lemonade "I was just about to take this out to him. The other one's for you. Here," She pushed the cold glasses into Anna's hands and while she was up close Anna took the opportunity to study the girl briefly. She had the kind of sad look in her eyes that comes from having your youth snatched away. Anna smiled kindly at her before making her way out to the porch.

She found him slouched in one of the old rocking chairs on the side porch with his eyes closed. He was sallow and clammy and for a brief moment Anna wondered if he had been bitten and was succumbing to his fate before noticing the venflon taped to his arm. Who was having blood transfusions? Out of habit she watched his chest rise and fall for a moment to calculate his respiratory rate. Slow but deep and steady. His eyes were still beneath the lids and Anna guessed that he was merely dozing. Not wishing to disturb him before he was ready, she set the glasses on the side-table as quietly as she could manage and took a seat in the other rocking chair.

Staring out, Anna spotted the camp that Hershel had told her about immediately. A huge motor home and several tents sat nestled among a group of trees. A grey haired man and a blonde woman sat atop the motor home armed with binoculars and shotguns while another two men sat cleaning their guns and a little way off the man who Rick had introduced as his partner was chopping firewood. There was an odd peace about the place. It seemed untouched, somehow.

"How are you feeling?" Anna started slightly at her porch companion's voice. Turning to face him she watched as he shifted gingerly in the rocking chair "Better than you look," She picked up the glass of lemonade and held it out for him to take "You need to stay hydrated. How much blood have you given, anyway?"

Rick took the cool glass and held it to his sweating forehead "Hershel tell you I've been donating?"

"No. But judging by the venflon in your arm, the expression of nausea on your face and the considerable lack of colour in your cheeks, I'd say you've misplaced at least four or five pints."

He chuckled weakly "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"I hope it was worth it."

"You bet your life."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Anna waiting for the police officer to drain the glass of lemonade before striking up a conversation once more "I understand you're wanting to speak with me."

"I do; but before I ask you anything, I'd like to apologise for my partner's behaviour last night. He was out of line."

Anna shrugged, wincing as her injured shoulder protested at the movement "There's nothing to apologise for. _I'd_ be suspicious of me too. In fact, since I took the decision to trawl the highways, nobody else has been as apprehensive as your partner. In a warped way, I consider it a positive thing that not everyone is so hysterical with desperation that they'll believe everything you tell them. That said, it's usually a decent indication that the only person depending on them is... well, _them_. Are your wife and children here?"

Rick nodded "Yes, they are," he clambered unsteadily to his feet "My wife and son are inside the house right now along with the Sophia's mother, Carol." He gestured for Anna to stand also. She rose and followed him to the porch steps "Sophia? The little girl that you're all looking for?"

Rick nodded "She's been gone a couple of days now."

"How did it happen?" They walked slowly toward the camp that Rick and his people had set up. Anna could feel herself begin to sweat already and cursed the Georgia heat.

"We were on the highway when a herd came through. Sophia was hiding under a car but two walkers found her and chased her into the woods. I tried to draw them away but by the time I went back for her she was gone. We've been lookin' for her ever since. All it takes is a little organisation and we'll bring her back safe."

Anna didn't say anything; she got the feeling that Rick knew he was clutching at straws just as much as she did. Still, stranger things had happened. The dead walking, for a start. So the man who had found her the day before... it must be his little girl, then.

"Anna, this is Glenn and T-Dog," Rick introduced her to the two men cleaning their weapons by the campfire. They stood and made their way over to greet her. Rick pointed to the motor home "And up on the RV is Dale and Andrea."

"Nice to meet you." The Asian kid, Glenn, held out his hand for her to shake and Anna smiled in spite of herself – those little gestures had been rare before the apocalypse and now they were practically extinct. She reached for his hand and shook it warmly "And you."

She received a wave from the two atop the RV and a friendly smile from T-Dog "So you're here to rescue us."

Anna smiled back "I wouldn't give myself that much credit."

"But you have a safe-house, right?" Glenn asked "Somewhere secure?"

"It's certainly secure." Anna allowed "There are a few people there already."

"Anna, last night you said that you had to drive for three days before you even got to Georgia – Where were you driving from?" Rick rubbed his forehead as he tried to mentally comprehend the situation they were in.

"It's a gated government compound in North Carolina – the precise location is difficult to explain. You won't exactly see it on any maps. But it's there."

"How convenient." A voice sneered from behind her. Anna turned to see Shane ambling over, the axe he'd been using to chop firewood hanging lazily at his side "You won't see it on any maps, but if we follow ya'll up to the Tarheel state then it will magically appear."

"Shane..." Ricks tone was warning, but he was cut off by shouts from the roof of the RV. Andrea, the blonde woman, was gesticulating wildly toward the edge of the woodland that surrounded the farm "Walker! Walker!"

Sure enough, in the distance there was a figure limping and shambling toward the camp. Anna squinted in order to get a better look but it was too far away. Around her, everybody had leapt into action. Spying a discarded crowbar next to the fire, Anna picked it up and scanned the edge of the woodland for any other threats.

"I think I can get it from here," Andrea was already led flat on her stomach, her shotgun trained on the figure.

"Andrea, no!" Rick held out his hands to try and stop them "Hershel wants to deal with any walkers!" His cries fell on deaf ears as Glenn, T-Dog and Shane charged past him. He cried out in anguish and took up his own weapon, gesturing for Anna to follow him.

Anna's sore muscles screamed as she ran alongside the men across the field. As they reached the walker though, instinct kicked in and she realized something was wrong.

"Is that Daryl?"

The Hunter who had rescued her the previous day stood before them, battered and broken. He must have been out looking for his little girl alone. His shirt was tied around his waist as a makeshift tourniquet. He didn't speak, but Anna noticed that he still clutched his crossbow. The dead didn't carry things.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing in my face!" he spat at Rick, who kept his pistol trained on him still "You gonna pull the trigger or what?" He was pale and his words were slurred. He looked as though he'd lost a fight. And a lot of blood.

Rick dropped his gun and they all relaxed once it became obvious that they were not dealing with the undead after all. Anna took a step forward to reach out to him "You need medical attention-" no sooner had she said the words than a shot rang out and The Hunter fell to the ground.

"No!" Rick screamed back toward the camp, waving his arms "No!"

Anna was on the ground, her hands combing through The Hunter's hair to check his wound "He's just grazed..." She breathed a sigh of relief, before Rick and Shane reached for his arms to pull him up "I was just kidding..." he slurred crankily before passing out. Anna automatically reached for the wrist hanging over Shane's shoulder in order to take a pulse.

"Guys, what the hell are those?" Glenn pointed to The Hunter's chest "Are those ears?"

Rick ripped the string from around The Hunter's neck and stuffed it down the front of his own shirt "Nobody needs to know that."

X

"Hold still!" At Hershel's request, Anna was attempting to clean the graze on The Hunter's head after the veterinarian had stitched up his side. She had hung back once they had arrived at the farmhouse, unsure of how much help to offer. She needn't have bothered – Hershel beckoned her in and she had swabbed at wounds and listened to The Hunter's account of finding the doll that apparently belonged to the little girl they were all searching for. Now, the others had left to plot their moves for the next day and she was left to dress the graze from the bullet.

"You're hurtin' me lady!" It hadn't escaped Anna's noticed that he clutched the bedcovers high on his chest in order to hide the old scars that littered his torso. Hiding them meant he was ashamed – not hunting injuries, then.

"It'll hurt less if you stop struggling..."

"It hurt _less_ when I was lyin' in the goddamn creek!"

"Fine." Anna stood back and crossed her arms, glaring at him "Enjoy Hepatitis."

They stared one another out for a moment before finally, realising that he wasn't going to win, he sighed and sulkily crossed his arms in front of his chest "Just do it quickly."

Anna picked up a fresh swab and dipped it in the cleansing solution. Reaching up with her free hand she held his chin and angled his face toward the bedside lamp. Feeling his jaw tense underneath her fingers she made an attempt at soothing him "Try and relax. Take some nice deep breaths."

He didn't answer her but she heard him breathing deeply through his nose and eventually she felt his jaw slacken a little "So you found Sophia's doll. That must feel encouraging." Anna was having a hard time believing that a little girl was managing to survive on her own in the woods, but she had seen plenty of parents standing over the bodies of their children and refuse to believe that they were dead – this man didn't even have the body of his daughter. Of course he was in denial.

"The doll cuts our search area in half. It's only a matter of time now."

"I'm sure your daughter is safe, wherever she is."

"What?" he stared at her in confusion.

Anna placed the last piece of tape over the dressing she had put on his head "I said I'm sure your daughter-"

"-She ain't my baby. Before the world ended, I didn't even know her. Her daddy died a couple weeks back at our old camp."

Anna struggled for words, embarrassed by her mistake "Oh. I'm sorry, I misunderstood."

"Damn right you misunderstood. You think the only reason I'd be lookin' for Sophia was if she were my little girl? Hell, I bet you don't even believe she's still alive."

Anna stared at her hands "I believe that you believe it."

"Swell." His voice heavy with sarcasm, he turned to lay on the bed facing away from her. Anna took that as her cue to leave.


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks for all my lovely reviews! I've been away for a while so it was really nice to get back and discover some new followers!**

**Chapter Ten**

** X**

Anna paused in the hallway after leaving The Hunter to rest. She could hear voices coming from the kitchen, along with the clattering of pots and pans. The late evening sun shone through the window at the end of the hallway, casting a syrupy orange glow over everything. The house was warm and bright and completely out of sync with everything else in the new world. Anna knew she should be comforted by it, but her instincts still bristled anxiously. Apart from the obvious, what was wrong with this picture? She leaned heavily against the wall and shut her eyes for a moment, trying to order her thoughts.

There was nothing immediately suspicious about Hershel or his daughters – apart from Hershel's reluctance to reveal how Rick and his group came to be at the farm. Rick's group were typical survivors – thrown together haphazardly, barely attempting to ignore how truly incompatible they were with one another. From the ones that she'd met, none posed a threat that she couldn't deal with. Not even Shane.

Because of his physical strength, his personality and aggressive nature could be considered dangerous to an extent, but Anna guessed that this was not his default setting. He probably used to be a really nice guy. Something was needling him deep inside, causing him discomfort. It was obvious that Rick had known him for a long time and Rick didn't present as the sort of person who would willingly associate with someone naturally volatile, so the logical conclusion must be that Shane had a thorn in his paw over something. Rick knew it too, Anna could tell. Shane's outbursts and nasty comments surprised him, made him worry. It would appear that Rick had been thrust unsuspectingly into the role of leader within this band of merry men, and was having trouble adjusting when his right hand man was, simply put, being a dick.

The blonde woman, Andrea, was next on the list. Not a threat insomuch as she didn't seem to mean any harm, but definitely sporting an itchy trigger finger. A minor concern. One that would be considerably greater had she been a better shot.

The Hunter was a little different. He was easy enough to get a read on, mainly because he wasn't trying to hide anything. That wasn't the strange thing. The strange thing was why he was with these people. If the missing girl wasn't his daughter and he wasn't _with_ her mother, so to speak, then his presence in the group was unusual. He could clearly fend for himself, and Anna had watched him communicate with Rick and Shane as Hershel had stitched him up – they were not on the friendliest terms. Anna guessed that The Hunter's upbringing had not exactly been charmed and authority figures probably brought out the worst in him. The question was, why had he stayed with the group for so long with nothing to hold him here?

"Are you alright?" Anna opened her eyes to see a middle aged woman, her hair cropped close to her head, idling at the other end of the hallway, a look of concern on her pretty face. Anna pushed her hair from her eyes and smiled "I'm fine, thank you; I was just taking a moment."

"You must be Anna. I'm Carol." Carol moved closer, her skinny arms wrapped around herself. To Anna, she looked wrung out.

"You're Sophia's mum." No sense in skirting around the subject. Carol nodded, her expression a little vacant but her eyes full of meaning "I'm sorry to hear that she's missing."

"She's been gone almost three days now." Carol murmured, coming to lean against the wall opposite to Anna.

"How old is she?"

"She was twelve last April."

"Gosh – she's a big girl now, then." Anna was immediately transported back to the Accident and Emergency department, standing in quiet corridors in the early hours of the morning keeping watch on strung out parents while the resuscitation team worked on their child down the hall. She would make hushed chit-chat, asking question after question about the child, keeping the parent's minds busy. Others tried to steer around the topic completely in order to distract them, but Anna had always felt that this was counter-productive. In her opinion, it was more comforting for them to be able to think about the child as the person they were before the car accident or the fall or the illness, rather than reminding them that there was a very real possibility that their world was about to end. As far as she was concerned, it was unlikely that there would be a moment from that point on when that child's face wasn't going to be the first and last thing on that parent's mind. It seemed foolish and cruel to try and sully that.

"Yeah," Carol smiled slightly "She's tall too."

"Set for the catwalk then, I imagine."

Carol chuckled "She would hate that. She's a real wallflower." Settling into the conversation, both Anna and Carol stooped to sit on the floor opposite one another, their backs resting against the walls. They talked quietly for some time until another figure appeared in the hallway "You know ladies, we have perfectly good chairs that I would not be opposed to you sittin' on." Hershel's voice was soothing, his tone carrying a glimmer of amusement. Both Carol and Anna offered him a smile "Are you here to check on Daryl?" Carol asked as they hauled themselves to their feet. Daryl. That was The Hunter's name. Hershel shook his head "I've come to check on my other patient." He turned his attention to Anna, who for a brief moment thought he was referring to her before remembering the venflon taped to Rick's arm "Anna, given your nursing experience I'd be grateful if you could take a look with me, perhaps give a second opinion?"

X

"What do you think?"

"He's certainly putting up a hell of a fight." Anna had listened incredulously as Hershel recounted the story of the boy in the bed before her, and having watched the Vet take a pulse and a blood pressure, she held a stethoscope against his chest and listened to the slow but steady heartbeat "You seem to have performed a miracle. Had I seen this boy in the A&E I wouldn't be holding out much hope," she said truthfully, quickly glancing at the boy to make sure he was still sleeping "Do you think there will be prolonged internal damage?"

"He was lucky; no vital organs were compromised and although there was some internal bleeding, we seem to have taken care of that now. Had the ventilator not arrived in time however, it would be a different story. It had to be collected from the High School a few miles up the road."

"Who went and got the ventilator?" Somehow, Anna thought it unlikely that Hershel would have sent either of his daughters on a certain-death mission to retrieve a piece of medical equipment. Hershel stared down at his hands.

"A very good friend of mine, Otis. He and Shane made the trip but only Shane came back. Otis offered to go because... because he was the one who shot Carl."

"I'm sorry," Anna offered quietly "I'm sorry about your friend." In the bed, Carl stirred a little before settling again. Anna and Hershel waited until his breathing was once more even and easy - the symbol of slumber – before continuing.

"Otis was... a very good person. He gave up his life so that Shane could make it back with the ventilator. His absence will be felt in many ways. But he is at peace now."

"I'm sure of it." Anna placed the stethoscope back on the bedside cabinet "What will happen once he's well again?"

"I've already informed Rick that once Carl is able to travel I would like for his group to leave the farm, in the interests of keeping my family safe."

"And you'll stay here?" together, Anna and Hershel left the room and walked along the corridor. Hershel nodded. Anna was about to ask why when he held up a hand to silence her "Another time." He said gently as they arrived in the kitchen and out of habit, both made straight for the sink to wash their hands.

Beth, Maggie, Carol and two women that Anna had not yet met bustled around the small kitchen. One of them, a tall thin woman with a head full of thick dark hair made her way over to Hershel, drying her hands on a dishcloth "How's he doin'?"

Hershel looked at her with kind eyes "Much the same. No worse. It's best that he continues to sleep for as long as possible."

The woman processed this information, her hands still fiddling anxiously with the dishcloth, before nodding her thanks and turning her attention to Anna "You're the lady that Daryl brought back. I'm Lori Grimes - Rick's wife."

"Anna Spencer."

The other woman moved forward slowly, as though every step were hurting her. Her blonde hair hung in strands about her shoulders and it was clear that she had recently been crying. Hershel moved to place a comforting hand on her shoulder "Anna this is Patricia, Otis's wife." Patricia nodded silently, her eyes once again threatening to fill. Seeing the potato peeler in her hand, Anna recalled the earlier conversation shed had with Beth and saw an opportunity to do Patricia a kindness.

"Here," she said softly, reaching for the potato peeler "I gather you're looking for someone to do that for you."

"Why don't you go rest Patricia? We can finish up here." Lori offered, catching Hershel's gaze over the top of Patricia's head. Hershel nodded silently and gently steered her from the room.

Anna offered a small smile to the remaining women in the kitchen before setting to work on the potatoes. For a while they worked without conversation, the only sounds being the kitchen instruments clinking gently against one another.

"So Anna," Carol began eventually "You used to be an ER nurse."

"Yes. But I promise I've made better decisions since."

A ripple of vague laughter ran around the kitchen "Did you get a lot of crazy stuff coming into your ER?" Beth leaned against the counter as she dried up after Maggie.

"Well..." Anna struggled to think of something that wouldn't put them off their food "We did once have a man come in who swallowed his own glass eye."

Beth's jaw dropped "You're kidding."

"I wish I was. And then there was the woman who rocked up insisting that the wires in her walls were making her sick."

"And were they?"

"I doubt it. She lived in a pop-up tent outside Camden station."

X

Rick and Shane were wiping their feet on their way into the farmhouse when a gale of laughter rang out from the direction of the kitchen. They glanced at one another, eyebrows cocked, and for brief moment Rick was reminded of better times. Lori had had a group of friends who seemed to live at the house. He and Shane would often arrive back to the sounds of constant inconsequential chatter and laughter. At the time, it had irked him. Now though, he missed it.

"Hens always flock together." Shane grumbled. Andrea, who was making her own way through the door followed by Glenn, T-Dog and Dale, stopped to shoot him a dirty look.

"And that's not sexist at all because...?"

Shane decline to answer her, instead stomping away into the house. Rick sighed. Moment over.

X

Anna couldn't remember the last time she had felt so many eyes on her. She kept her gaze on her plate, unsure of what to do or say. It was clear what the majority of people in the room were waiting for her to say, but she found herself at a loss over how to broach the topic.

In the end, it was Rick who spoke out "Anna if you don't mind, I'd like to hear some more about the compound you've been telling us about." He shot her a look that said he had noticed the bristling tension around the table as well.

Anna sent him a grateful glance "What would you like to know?"

X

_The oppressive temperature hit Anna like a wave of heat as she alighted from the jet, her eyes shielded from the bright North Carolina sun by her (offensively expensive) sunglasses. _

"_Miss Walker?" a solidly built and good looking middle aged man stepped forward from between two armed soldiers. Anna nodded her answer, afraid that she would unlikely be heard over the jet engines, still intrusively loud even as they cooled down. She could already feel a trickle of sweat running down her back and tried not to grimace as she reached for the hand that was being held out to her "Call me Anna!" she fairly shouted over the roar. The man's handshake was firm ad confidant. _

"_My name is Griff Jones. You were recommended to me personally by Alex Carling at Scotland Yard." Anna bit back a smile. Trust Alex to have connections with the CIA "Alex and I worked together on a case a year or so ago." She explained, the smell of aviation fuel still strong in her nostrils even as they clambered into the waiting towncar. _

"_He told me you'd be the one to blow the lid off this thing." _

"_Unlikely, but it's nice to know he still cares." Anna's stomach jolted unpleasantly as she felt the car move off. She wasn't a poor traveller, but the journey had been bumpy and around halfway through the sleep deprivation had finally caught up with her. She tried to take a deep calming breath without Griff noticing, but the expression on his face told her she had been caught out. _

"_Don't worry – you'll get a chance to sleep before we throw you in off the deep end. It'll be another six hours or so before your interviewees arrive. They're being transported from Washington." _

"_Thank you," Anna breathed a sigh of relief "I was just about reaching my seventy-two hour limit." _

"_In that case, I'll brief you fully once you're rested and ready to go again," Griff shifted to face her "But I feel I should warn you that we're in pretty deep here. You have no idea how much your assistance is appreciated." _

"_Agent Jones, I hope my abilities haven't been overestimated. I very much doubt that this will be a one person job." _

X

Anna sat back and let the rest of her dining companions assimilate what she had just told them. She noticed that Shane sat back with his arms folded, his gaze burning a hole in the table top. What was his problem? A few times during her story, Anna had noticed him glance surreptitiously at Lori, attempting to catch her eye - a tactic to which the Sheriff's wife either didnt' see or refused to acknowledge.

"So..." Dale began eventually "What were you doing at the compound in the first place?"

"I was on secondment from the UK. A contact of mine at Scotland Yard recommended me."

"A spy? Hey Rick, load up the truck, this broad must be trustworthy – she's a goddamn _spy_!" Shane jeered from his end of the table.

"I'm not a _goddamn_ spy," Anna could feel the anger rising within her "I'm a goddamn _spy-catcher_."

"Yeah?" Shane sneered "What's the damn difference darlin'?"

Anna glared and him and through gritted teeth she growled "When you're a big boy, I'll show you."

The scrape of chair legs against the wooden floor vibrated through her as Shane jumped to his feet, leaning toward her over the table, his eyes half closed menacingly "Girl, you better start talkin' 'cause I'm about done bein' patient with you. Now what the _hell_ is a spy-catcher?"

Anna levelled her gaze at Shane, looking almost disbelievingly at him "What do you _think _it is? It's hardly going to involve _gardening_, is it?" At the sight of Shane's nostrils flaring, Anna sighed and with pronounced effort so to indicate that he was being exceedingly stupid, she said "I. Catch. Spies. That's what a spy-catcher does. I get information out of people."

"Bet that makes you a pretty effective liar." Shane hissed. Anna opened her mouth to retort but Rick slammed fist down on the table, making everyone jump.

"Shane, _stop. _You can't just go around accusing someone you've known for less than twenty-four hours of meaning harm. Anna has been honest with us."

"How the _hell _do you know that?"

"Because what sense would it make to lie about a safe house two states over? As a lie it's over-elaborate, but as truth... it makes sense."

"Give that man a coconut." Anna muttered.

Shane's eyes flashed with fury and he threw one last dirty look at Anna before stalking out.

There was a moment of awkward silence at the table before the sounds of a child coughing in the next room brought Lori, Rick and Hershel to their feet. as they hurried from the table, Anna caught Carol's eye and gave her a nudge "I'll help you clear up."

X

Sorry about the wait for this one! I'm also pretty sure it ended on an unsatisfactory note but I wanted to post something so...


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Eleven**

_Years later, when she thought back on her first week in the Security Service Anna could remember little else aside from trying desperately not to bolt from her desk and run back to the A&E where she felt safe. What was she doing here? She didn't belong here. At some point every day, the suited man who she had stitched up – his name was Peter, she had learnt – would appear at her desk with an encouraging smile and ask how she was getting on. She would make vague noises and hope that he had arrived to tell her that he had made a dreadful mistake and would she please leave and go back to her old job. _

_On the fifth day, Peter appeared and silently beckoned for her to follow him. Legs like jelly, Anna stood and scuttled after him along the winding corridors of Thames House. Peter remained silent and Anna could feel herself becoming more and more nervous. Eventually, they reached a lift and once inside, Peter retrieved a walkie talkie from his pocket "Marina, I'm on my way down with Anna Spencer. Please could you have the detainee ready for her?"_

_Detainee? Anna felt her stomach turn cold. What was Peter going to ask her to do?_

_The dismay must have been obvious on her face because Peter smiled comfortingly at her "Anna, don't worry. This is just an exercise to test the limits of your natural ability for detecting lies. We need to know what training to provide you with." _

_This helped, but not much. Anna bit her lip anxiously "But... what am I supposed to do?"_

"_Whatever you like."_

"_Shouldn't I know something about the..." Anna flailed a nervous hand as she inwardly fought to retrieve the word he had used just seconds before "-Detainee?"_

"_Sometimes, you'll be briefed. Other times, when working in the field, there won't be the opportunity. This is a chance to see you interacting with someone 'cold', so to speak." By this time, they had exited the lift and found themselves in the bowels of the building. Anna shivered and reminded herself to dress warmer if she found herself spending more time down there. _

_A sudden rumble all around them stopped Anna in her tracks. Peter smiled "Don't worry; it's just the tube."_

_Anna nodded in understanding before realising the flaw in this and frowning "Hold on, there isn't a tube line that runs this way..."_

"_Not officially, no." He strode off leaving Anna with her mouth hanging open._

_Peter walked in long, officious strides and Anna found herself almost jogging to keep up. They turned onto a long corridor, lined with heavy duty security doors and at the other end of it, Anna could see a middle aged woman in scrubs idling, seemingly waiting for them. _

"_He doesn't seem very talkative today. We've had to put the restraints on him as he got a bit aggressive."Presumably this was Marina. Anna shifted uncomfortably under her unimpressed gaze "She's very tiny, Peter. She doesn't really look strong enough." Her voice was casual to the point of being dismissive and Anna wondered whether she ought to be indignant about the slight on her stature, or terrified about what lay behind the door she was being led to._

"_Anna will be fine, thank you Marina. Is he in here?" Peter's hand hovered above the door handle, waiting for Marina's nod of confirmation. Once given, he pulled the handle down and gestured for Anna to enter "Off you go, then."_

"_I'm supposed to go in there alone?" _

_Peter smiled a smile that reminded her vaguely of the Cheshire cat "What do you think?"_

"_I think I was better prepared the last time I had my legs waxed."Anna couldn't help it; she felt completely abandoned on all fronts. Peter's grip loosened on the door handle and he grinned patiently, leaning casually against the wall to stare at her. _

"_Your nervous instinct is a useful tool as long as you know how to interpret it correctly. For instance, you are not anxious because you have not received adequate briefing. You are anxious because of the tiny pieces of information you have been able to glean on the way down here – i.e. that the man you are about to see is a detainee who is feeling unnaturally aggressive today. But that is all. And it may not be true. Misinformation is our business, Anna. Never forget that. It is foolish to be afraid of what is behind a closed door. While standing here now, I bet that your imagination has tormented you about the contents of this room in unimaginable ways, hasn't it?" He paused, but somehow Anna knew that he didn't expect an answer from her. He reached up and gave her shoulder a squeeze "Some of your hurts you have cured, and the sharpest you still have survived. But what torments of grief you endured, from the evil which never arrived." _

**X**

Anna stood at the sink waiting for the water to run hot, staring absentmindedly out of the window and trying to think if she had ever envisaged such a time when she would be right here, right now.

The answer was no. She had never predicted in a million years that she would be trawling the backwoods of post-apocalyptic America, searching for fellow survivors. After her parents died, she had closed off the part of herself dedicated to the future, instead just choosing to live in the present. This had seemed like the best option available, with teachers and counsellors and (later on) barstool philosophers, all preaching the benefits of simply living in the now. The unexamined life is not worth living, or so Socrates thought. But as far as Anna was concerned, she didn't want to examine herself or her motives or anything that might lead to why she felt so alone even before the world ended.

She wasn't maladaptive or deficient in empathy; nursing practically slapped that out of you before you even had a chance to think. It was physically impossible to stand over an elderly person whose dementia had reached such limits that they didn't even recognise their own spouses anymore and not have to go and lock yourself in a cupboard and cry for ten minutes. She had been told on more than one occasion that motherhood would suit her, and in the past she had been known to indulge in fort-building and water fights on the children's ward. No. She wasn't cold.

Perhaps she was normal. Perhaps everyone reached a point where they looked around and thought 'How did I get here?" perhaps she wasn't the only one who had neglected to examine their life.

"Are you alright?" Carol appeared at her elbow and Anna shook herself from her reverie "Yes, thank you." She began to wash the dinner plates "Would you think me prying if I asked about your group?" Anna asked in a low voice.

Carol took the plates from her, drying as she washed "That depends on what you want to know." She responded in an equally low tone.

"Just the general story. I don't really care about the group dynamic and who hates who etcetera. I'm not here to stir things up. I'm more concerned with the timeline."

And Carol told her. Told her about the camp outside Atlanta, about Rick's coma, how he'd searched for and found his family against the odds, how the Hunter's brother had ended up cuffed to a rooftop in the city and had sacrificed his hand and escaped by the time they'd gone back for him. Anna heard about the camp's breach and the death of several of their number, the pilgrimage to the CDC, about how the group thought that they were finally safe only to have sanctuary ripped from their grasp.

"... After the CDC, we were exposed again so we had to keep moving. We drove for hours. Eventually we reached the highway you left your truck on. We were going through the abandoned cars and trucks to see if there was anything we could use when the herd came through. That was when we lost Sophia." Carol's voice cracked "We looked for her until it started to get dark. Rick and Shane sent us back and carried on looking. Carl was with them. That was when he got shot and we ended up at the farm."

"When was that?"

"A few days ago."

"And I gather Hershel's not keen on your staying once you find Sophia?"

"I think Rick's trying to convince him otherwise, but it's not looking so good." Carol leaned against the sideboard "I guess now that we know about your safehouse, that doesn't matter so much does it?"

Anna mirrored Carol's pose, crossing her arms and leaning against the kitchen table. They might as well have been two housewives chatting idly about how hot the summer had been, how irritable it had made their husbands, how their gardens had suffered. The irony was not lost on either of them, and they flashed each other a brief wry smile before Carol once again spoke "How long were you in the states before the world ended?"

"Three or four days. Things had already started to deteriorate. The first couple of agents were bitten in the first wave and turned forty-eight hours after I arrived which forced us into lockdown. By the time we realised what was happening we were overrun and half the agents were dead or bitten."

"How many of you were there?"

"Nearly two hundred."

"And now?"

Anna smiled grimly "Just me."

"Jesus."

"There would have been more, but once we lost radio contact and realised that help wasn't coming, a bunch of people took overdoses, slashed their wrists, that sort of thing." Anna didn't feel the need to add that they had woken up again. She suppressed a shiver, remembering the desperate knocking at the door of the office she had locked herself in to sleep. She had opened the door and before she could register who was standing there, a gun had been hastily shoved into her hands.

"What made you leave after all that? I mean, how could you even be sure there would be anyone left outside?"

Anna shrugged "I couldn't. I just didn't want to be the last person on earth."

** X**

Anna perched on one of the porch railings smoking a cigarette and trying to ignore the beads of sweat running down her back, as well as the grimy and exhausted feeling that the relentless heat was leaving her with. The very last dregs of evening sunlight were disappearing over the trees and in the distance she could see T-dog building a fire over in the camp, chatting idly to Dale who was sat atop the RV. Below, Shane stalked back and forth, his gaze on the trees.

"I'm sorry about Shane." Anna turned to see Lori hovering at the screen door "He wasn't always like this."

"Have he and Rick always been close?"

"Ever since high school. They were inseparable. He was Best Man at our wedding."

"It must have hit him almost as hard as it hit you when he was shot."

"Carol told you?" Lori joined her at the railing and together they stared out over Hershel's land.

Anna nodded "I hope you don't think I'm prying. I just wanted an idea of what you guys have been through."

"Plenty."

"So I gather."

"I'm going to level with you. Rick trusts you, and his instincts are pretty good. If my little boy weren't laid up with a gunshot wound and we weren't lookin' for a lost child, I think he'd have the truck packed and the engine running by now. I don't know if you have a selection process or whatever but I can tell you that we're good people. All of us." Lori's eyes were pleading and Anna reached out to give her arm a squeeze.

"I know you are. Don't worry, I'm not about to line you all up and just pick out the ones I want. In fact, if I hadn't gotten myself chased into the woods by – what is it you call them? Walkers? – then I'd probably have made a go of tracking your group and checking you out from a distance first." Seeing Lori's horrified look, she added "Look, I know it's not exactly democratic-"

"No, no of course not," Lori seemed flustered, almost embarrassed to have been caught judging "I understand that it was safer for you to be sure first."

"Not just safer for me – safer for the people I've already allowed into the compound."

Night was falling quickly now, and Anna could hear the crickets singing out in the fields. Lori made to leave after a moment of silence. She paused to smile briefly at Anna "I'm glad I had a chance to talk to you."

"I'm glad you're glad. Goodnight." Anna watched the thin, nervous woman descend the steps of the farmhouse and walk in the general direction of the campsite, frowning only slightly when she saw Lori glanced around to see if anyone was watching before furtively hurrying past the trees and out into the fields.

"Anna?" Beth appeared at the screen door "My dad was wondering if you wouldn't mind helpin' him take a look at Daryl."

** X**

"You wanted to see me?"

"What's she doin' here?" The Hunter did not look well. His breathing was ragged, his pupils shockingly dilated. His skin was grey and clammy and he was shivering with fever – the bedclothes that he had clung to earlier had been stripped back and he lay open to the air. Rick stood well back in the corner of the room looking anxious as Patricia and Hershel fussed around him. The Hunter's words upon hearing Anna's voice were slurred "I don't want no more goddmmn people in here." He hissed as Patricia placed a cold compress on his forehead.

"Anna," Hershel signalled for her to move closer to the bed "Grab a compress."

"Have you given him something to take down the fever?"

"I can't get him to stay lucid for long enough. He's got a bad infection."

Anna threw both Hershel and Rick a questioning look. _What kind of infection?_

"We don't know that yet." Said Rick firmly. Anna nodded as if to say that this was a fair argument. The guy had dragged himself back to the farm through all kinds of dirt with several open wounds. The Hunter recoiled as she placed a cold compress on one of his wrists "Get offa me Merle!" he suddenly shouted, twitching and writhing in the bed "You big dumb bastard. I showed you. I made it back..." Once again he seemed to sink back into the fever and began to mumble incoherently.

Patricia frowned "Who's Merle?"

"His brother," Rick explained "He... got left behind."

"I can give him antibiotics but with the state he's in, I wouldn't be surprised if he tore the IV out. We need him calm enough to take an antipyretic before I can do anything."

Rick stepped forward and lowered his voice enough for only Anna to hear "We also need to check him for bites or scratches."

Suddenly, Anna understood what was required of her and almost smiled at the absurdity of it. It wasn't something she'd dealt with very often, but as she scanned the room her gaze fell upon the glass of water on the nightstand and she had an idea. Taking the pills from Hershel, she signalled for the others to leave "It'll work better if it's quiet." She whispered. Patricia left, followed by Hershel and finally Rick, who paused and turned once more before closing the door "We'll be right outside." Anna nodded and upon hearing the _click_ of the door, moved to sit gingerly on the edge of the bed.

"Daryl?" She kept her words hushed and as she spoke, she placed her hand gently over the Hunter's "Daryl, can you hear me?"

"Mmm?" The Hunter's hand twitched under her own and he continued to shiver, his eyes half closed and half wild with fever. Anna moved her hand up to his chest. His heart was beating like a train "Wake up for me, sweet."

"... feel bad, momma..." Her heart contracted at the sound of the word _momma_. She knew how it felt to cry out for your mother when you were sick and not have her come. Anna felt a small spark of sadness ignite for the Hunter. It wasn't uncommon to revert to a childlike state in delirium.

"I know you do darling." She reached up and placed a hand on the back of his neck "Can you sit up for me?"

The Hunter nodded slightly and with Anna's assistance, eased himself into an awkward sitting position, his head lolling forward "Cold..." he mumbled into his chest.

"That's because of your fever. You need to take some tablets to bring it down," Anna said gently "Can you do that for me?" She pressed the tablets into the Hunter's hand and handed him the glass of water to swallow them with "Now, time for sleep." The Hunter sank back down onto the bed and closed his eyes without argument. His shivering would not abate until the antipyretic began to work, but he already seemed calmer.

** X**

Once Hershel was satisfied that the Hunter wouldn't tear his drip out, he began him on IV antibiotics. Both Rick and Anna checked again and again but could find no sign of a bite or scratch. Clueless, they both sat at the end of the Hunter's bed where he now slept.

"I guess now all we need is for him to survive the fever." Anna near-whispered. Rick gave her a strange glance.

"What do you mean?"

"I _mean_, as long as he doesn't die from this infection, then he won't turn."

Rick paused, his mouth open a little. He glanced toward the Hunter's sleeping form before turning back to Anna "How did you know that we're all infected?"

Anna raised an eyebrow "I thought everyone knew."

Rick shook his head "The scientist we met at the CDC told me before he blew himself up. But I was the only one."

"Are you..." Anna opened and closed her mouth, attempting to assimilate "Are you saying that before that, you had _no idea_ that you were all infected? And your people _still don't know_?"


End file.
